Hampshire Bin Laden Jet Crash: Pilot 'Overwhelmed'

7 March 2017, 13:15

An inquest's heard the pilot flying a private jet, which crashed killing three members of Osama bin Laden's family, was 'overwhelmed' as he approached a small Hampshire airport.

That led to him landing too fast and too late.

A jury returned a narrative verdict for the four casualties at the Basingstoke inquest into the accident at Blackbushe Airport near Fleet on 31 July 2015, describing how ``the plane overshot the runway and crashed, causing it to catch fire''.

The members of bin Laden's family who died were his stepmother, Raja Bashir Hashem, 75, her daughter, Sana bin Laden, 53, and her husband, Zouheir Anuar Hashem, 56.

The hearing was told that the Jordanian pilot, 58-year-old Mazen Salim Alqasim, who had been a last-minute substitute for the flight, faced a ``very high workload'' from the jet's automated instructions to avoid other aircraft in the area.

Julian Firth, principal investigator of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), said that although the pilot had flown to Blackbushe previously, he might have been more used to flying into airports which are more tightly co-ordinated by air traffic controllers.

North Hampshire Coroner Andrew Bradley said: 

``Blackbushe is not an all-singing, all-dancing airport and instructions from the control tower are not what you would get from Heathrow and Jeddah.

``He was approaching too fast, touching down at the wrong point, he's making a decision to continue with his landing until it's too late.''

Senior AAIB inspector Afandi Darlington said the Saudi-registered Phenom 300 jet approached the airfield at 151 kias (knots-indicated air speed), 40% faster than the target of 108 kias, and would have needed 616m of paved runway to come to a stop but there was only 438m available.

Mr Darlington added: ``The AAIB investigation didn't identify a technical cause for this accident.''

Detective Sergeant Paula James, of Hampshire Police, said the victims of the crash were identified by their dental records.

In a statement read to the court, Saad bin Laden, brother of Sana bin Laden, said his family had flown back from Milan in Italy, having attended a family wedding at Lake Como, and his last contact with them had been a WhatsApp photograph of the three of them that morning.

Mr bin Laden said the pilot had flown to Blackbushe four or five times previously and added: ``I would regard him as a conscientious and careful pilot.''

The cause of death given by pathologist Dr Russell Delaney for all four victims was ``the effects of fire'' but added that they would most likely have lost consciousness from carbon monoxide prior to their bodies being ``incinerated'' by the fire which engulfed the aircraft.

Eyewitness John Goodey, who was working at a car auction site next to the airfield, said: ``It flew over the fence, it was bouncing on all the roofs of the cars, the noise was horrendous.''

He said he could see wires sparking off the back of the aircraft before it exploded.

Al Qaida leader Bin Laden, who claimed responsibility for the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States, is believed to have had more than 50 brothers and sisters and many stepmothers from his estranged family in Saudi Arabia.