Perthshire plane crash: Helicopter removes wreckage from site

The wreckage of a light aircraft which crashed into a Perthshire hillside has been removed by investigators.

A helicopter airlifted four large bags of debris from the crash site to a waiting lorry on the road below.

The wreckage will now be taken to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch headquarters in Farnborough where experts will reconstruct it in a bid to discover the cause of Sunday’s tragedy.

The Beechcraft plane was on its way to Dundee from Inverness when it struck the ground in poor weather near Abernyte.

The two men on board, jet2 pilot Andy Thompson and businessman John MacKinnon, were killed by the impact.

The aircraft had sought permission to land at Dundee Airport, which had been granted, but did not arrive.

The disappearance sparked a major search operation on both land and sea before the wreckage was discovered in the hills between Abernyte and Kinnaird.

Police have spent the past two days carefully searching the ground at Outfield Farm for parts of the fuselage.

For more on this story, see Thursday’s Courier.