A MICROLIGHT crash which killed two North Yorkshire men remains a mystery, following an investigation by experts.

The light aircraft Ikarus, carrying Ray Hymas, 68, of Lockton, near Pickering, and Terry Driffield, 66, plunged into the sea off the coast of Northern Ireland last June.

It disappeared on a flight departing from City of Derry airport in Northern Ireland, with wreckage found off the coast of Co Antrim at Glenarm.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has now published a report on its probe into the crash.

It said the craft departed at 10.45 am on June 9 for a flight to Kirkbride aerodrome in Cumbria, west of Carlisle, with two people on board.

“The aircraft was last seen at approximately 11.28 hrs near Cushendun, approximately 32 nm (nautical miles) north of Belfast,” it said.

“The aircraft’s tail section was spotted at 13.42 hrs the following day, floating in the sea 6.9 nm south-east of Cushendun.”

It said another aircraft took off at 10.44 am towards the same destination, with the pilot having planned the route with the occupants of the microlight that crashed, although there was no intention for the two aircraft to fly the route in formation.

York Press:

The pilot reported that the plan was for the two aircraft to fly around the coast of Northern Ireland in a clockwise direction towards Larne before turning east towards Stranraer and then Kirkbride aerodrome.

The last time he recalled seeing the doomed microlight was at approximately 11.28 am in the vicinity of Cushendun, on the coast approximately 32 miles north of Belfast, and he heard and saw nothing to indicate that there was a problem.

At 11.03 am, the pilot of a commercial flight reported that an aircraft with call sign Golf Juliet Sierra was trying to make contact with Scottish air traffic control, but the air traffic control officer replied that he could not hear the aircraft’s transmissions.

The microlight was reported missing at approximately 7pm when the pilot of the other craft called City of Derry Airport to find out whether it had returned.

“Examination of images of the recovered pieces of the aircraft confirmed that it had struck the sea with significant force,” said the report.

“However, due to the limited amount of material recovered, and the lack of other substantive evidence relating to the accident, the AAIB was unable to determine the cause of the loss of this aircraft.”

Members of the Baxby Aero Club at Husthwaite, near Thirsk, said last summer they had been devastated by the tragedy but were too upset to comment further.

Local pilots said the pair had been experienced pilots who were very safety conscious.