Pilot flies into estranged mother's house

A SWISS pilot flew his plane on a kamikaze mission into the home of his estranged mother after telephoning her from the cockpit to say; "Are you home? I am just going to drop by!"

Konrad Schmidt, 47, flew past over his mother's house in Oberhallau, three times before crashing at top speed into the building.

Police said pieces of his corpse were found later in the burning rubble. His mother Rosemary, 68, survived because she was in the basement at the time of the incident and is being treated for shock.

Eyewitnesses told police there was "no possibility" of an accident. One told a Swiss newspaper: "He had all these flypasts. He was lining himself up. And then he did it. It was like seeing a mini re-run of 9/11."

Neighbours helped rescue Rosemary from the burning shell of her house which will now have to be demolished. She told police of the air-to-ground phone call from the rented aircraft shortly before the attack on Saturday afternoon.

Her son had hired the Diamond Aircraft DA 42 earlier in the day from the St. Gallen-Altenrhein airport 45 minutes away. He took off in shortly before midday, before crasing it around 4:00pm.

Jobless Schmidt had a long running feud with his mother, according to neighbours, blaming her after she split from his late father. One told newspaper Blick: "They had a lot of heavy issues over a lot of things. They did not have a good relationship at all."