Colin McRae's helicopter controls 'may have seemed jammed'

FORMER world rally champion Colin McRae may have believed the controls on his helicopter had jammed seconds before it crashed, a court heard yesterday.

An investigator said the aircraft veered off-course as McRae was trying to escape a wooded valley he had flown into.

Ken Fairbank, senior inspector with the Air Accidents Investigations Branch, said that a phenomenon known as servo transparency may have occurred, causing the aircraft to divert from its flight path in the valley.

"We acknowledge that a technical malfunction could have occurred, although we consider this unlikely.

"The evidence points to the probability that this was an intended flight path which the pilot diverted from, or was forced to divert from, for whatever reason, and that resulted in the crash," he said.

Mr McRae, his son Johnny, five, and family friends Ben Porcelli, six, and Graeme Duncan, 37, died in the 2007 crash near Lanark. The fatal accident inquiry continues.