Tragic scene: Three bin Laden family members died in this plane crash. Photo / AP
Tragic scene: Three bin Laden family members died in this plane crash. Photo / AP
Family’s jet was equipped with state-of-the-art systems.
Aviation experts have expressed bafflement at the cause of the plane crash in which three members of the Bin Laden family and their Jordanian pilot were killed.
Their Saudi-registered Embraer Phenom 300 private jet was attempting to land at Blackbushe airport on the Hampshire-Surrey border in the south of England when it crashed on to dozens of vehicles parked at a car auction site close to the runway.
The 7 million ($16 million) state-of-the-art plane, equipped with fly-by-wire electronic systems that are supposed to make it easy to control, was a regular visitor to the airport, according to local pilots.
It was attempting a landing in near-perfect conditions on a runway that was fitted with Precision Approach Path Indicators (Papis). The four indicators, which can be seen from a kilometre away, all flash white if the pilot is coming in too high and red if too low.
"It doesn't make sense to me, as an ordinary pilot, why something that advanced and easy to fly would bury itself in the auction ground at the end of such a long runway," said Simon Moores, a flight instructor and pilot who has flown from Blackbushe many times.
The plane was arriving from Milan when the accident happened on Saturday. According to the US broadcaster NBC, it was carrying three relatives of Osama bin Laden. They were named as Rajaa Hashim, Osama's stepmother; Sana bin Laden, his half-sister, and her husband Zuhair Hashim. The plane's pilot was Mazen Salem al-Dajah, a Jordanian in his late 50s, who was employed by the bin Laden corporation and had 25 years' flying experience.
The large and wealthy Bin Laden family have a construction company in Saudi Arabia and business interests in Italy.
The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation has dispatched investigators to the scene and is liaising with the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).
A resident who did not want to be named said he saw the plane come down while he was repairing his chimney. "I was on the roof and I heard the jet and thought I would watch it land," he said. "I saw it going past, then it was about 20ft (6m) off the ground and I thought, it's not got enough runway to land here. It was too high as it was coming in to land and didn't touch the runway.
"The next thing I heard was the crash sirens and a big plume of smoke going up."
Eyewitness Sheraz Aslam, 31, from Reading told the GetSurrey website he had gone back to pick up a couple of cars when the crash happened.
"I was very, very close, maybe 30 or 40 yards away. I didn't hear anything. All of a sudden, the flames went really big. We could hear all the fuel tanks in the cars start to explode and there was a terrible smell. Then I noticed a bit of the wing sticking out. It was sticking up in the air, but the rest of the plane was completely destroyed and on fire."
UK regular destination for family
The plane carrying the sister and stepmother of Osama bin Laden had made regular trips to Britain in the past two years.
Hampshire police said the family were "visiting the UK on vacation".
Industry sources said the Embraer Phenom 300 jet, which was owned by the bin Laden family-run Salem Aviation company, had twice flown to southern England in the days before the crash, as well as making trips to Britain in March and at regular intervals since 2013, often landing at Blackbushe and Farnborough airports.
Osama Bin Laden.
On the day of the crash the plane left Blackbushe for Milan's Malpensa airport in northern Italy before returning later. The source said: "That plane, which is registered in Saudi Arabia, was a frequent visitor to the UK and has been since the end of 2013. It flew to the UK on July 28 and 29 and then flew out and back from Milan-Malpensa two days later, on the 31st".
Sana bin Laden was said to be a philanthropist, supporting local orphanages and sponsoring children's education in Saudi Arabia.
A friend of the family - Ajwa'a - paid tribute to her on her Facebook account saying she donated money to charities, including an orphanage in Mecca, and had not had contact with her brother Osama for decades.
•It is the third time members of the Bin Laden family have been killed in an aircraft crash.
•Mohammed bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's father, was killed when his Beechcraft 18 crashed in Saudi Arabia in 1967 while on his way to marry his 23rd wife.
•He built the construction business that won many contracts from the Saudi royal family and provided the foundations for a sprawling empire that now has a global turnover of US$2 billion ($3 billion) a year.
•Salem bin Laden, the half-brother of Osama, died in 1988 when his aircraft drifted into high-voltage power lines in San Antonio, Texas.
