Pilot dies as ‘icy’ aircraft hits river

Monday 11th January 2010, 9:02AM GMT.

A veteran pilot from Mid Wales has been killed after the plane he was flying crashed into a partially-frozen river in the United States.

Jim Beaton, 78, from Kerry, near Newtown, was flying a Cessna aircraft from a factory in Kansas to Russia.

It is thought ice built up on the wings and caused the plane to crash in Maine on January 4, just 43 minutes after take off.

Mr Beaton, originally from Renfrew, Scotland, was a former flying instructor at Mid Wales Airport in Welshpool. Friends described Mr Beaton as a top professional pilot who lived for flying.

Mr Beaton had been hired by an American company to fly the £150,000 Cessna 172 Skyhawk from a factory in Kansas to a flight school in St Petersburg, Russia.

Don Ratliff, of aircraft owners American King Air Services, said: “We’re not sure of the exact cause but we think it was severe icing.”

Bob Jones, of Mid Wales Airport in Welshpool, said: “We are all in shock and his death is a great loss to the aviation world.”

Mr Beaton was a flying instructor at the airport about eight or nine years ago for about three years.

Federal Aviation Administration investigators are now investigating the crash.

View more: Mid Wales news, Newtown news.