Engine error blamed for David Leslie crash

AN investigation into the aircraft accident which killed Scots racer David Leslie and team boss Richard Lloyd more than two years ago, has concluded the plane in which they were travelling may have suffered an inadvertent engine shutdown.

Annan-born Leslie, who lived in Banbury, had been travelling with Apex Motorsport team boss Lloyd and engineer Christopher Allarton to Pau in France to test the team's Jaguar XKR at Nogaro. But within minutes of their Cessna Citation 500 taking off from Biggin Hill in Kent, on 30 March, 2008, the plane crashed. The pilots, Mike Roberts and Michael Chapman, who also died, were praised for preventing the aircraft from crashing into a field where children were playing.

The Air Accident Investigations Branch reported yesterday that a "missing rivet head on the left engine fuel shut-off lever" may have contributed to the engine shutdown, and that 70 seconds prior to impact neither of the aircraft's engines were producing any thrust. One of the pilots also reported engine vibrations – probably caused by a "failure within the air cycle machine" – shortly after take-off and issued a mayday call.