Paul Hollywood's brother-in-law Simon Moores killed in plane crash during thick fog in Spain
Pilot Simon Moores' light aircraft went down near Errezil in the north of the country leaving his family devastated.
News of the tragedy came days after sister Alex, 54, first spoke of her traumatic break-up from Bake Off star Paul, 52.
Dad-of-two Simon, 62, of Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, was publicly scathing of Paul's new relationship with a barmaid 30 years his junior saying in April: "I am sure it will all end in tears."
He died flying a Piper Arrow III from the Portuguese town of Cascais to San Sebastian when it crashed into Mount Hernio around 2pm.
A second British pilot who was killed in the tragedy has not yet been named.
Locals heard a blast and called emergency services who had to use ropes to climb almost 1000 metres to the scene where they recovered two bodies.
Photos of the crash site show thick fog and wreckage strewn across the hills.
Simon's final hours were captured in a series of tweets he made before take-off and while in the air.
In the messages, he shows off the plane which he plans to eventually deliver to the UK, and says he has installed a new GPS naviagation system for his journey.
The day before the tragedy he tweeted a photo of the aircraft at 14.50, captioned: "Looking good."
Minutes later he added: "Load latest Garmin GPS SD card into GNS430 and attach lots of #iPads."
His next tweet at 3.20pm showed blue skies: "Cascais airfield basking in the late afternoon Portuguese sunshine #warm."
On the morning of the crash he began tweeting at 7.24am about his route: "Dawn's early light – apparently Biarritz make it very difficult to refuel so go to San Sebastian instead."
Just one more tweet followed at 10.02am showing two photos taken from the cockpit with the caption: "Mountains of Mid Spain."
It appeared to show a bank of fog or cloud drifting in from the right, though he was still several hours from disaster.
Yesterday a recording of one of the two crew members talking to air traffic control appeared on a Spanish website.
The time of the recording is unknown but the pilot appeared to be requesting a change of route.
Spanish authorities said the plane was owned by David John Hockings, from Hailsham, in East Sussex, who is a business associate of Simon's.
It's thought Simon was returning the plane to the UK after a lease.
Alex's brother ran a successful aircraft banner business called Airads out of Rochester Aerodrome and made frequent media appearances on the BBC and Sky News as an aviation expert.
In a 2017 BBC interview he joked: "I think I've proposed to more women than any man alive. I lost count at about 100 which was five years ago."
Last March a Hong Kong syndicate hired him to fly a pro-Arsene Wenger banner over the Hawthorns ahead of Arsenal's game with West Brom.
He was also hired by the Labour party to fly a banner over London ahead of the Brexit referendum.
Food writer Alex Hollywood learned of the accident from family friends but was still waiting official confirmation from authorities.
After reports of the accident began surfacing, friends and family began making anxious phonecalls to Simon's mobile hoping he was not among the dead.
But the calls all went unanswered.
Spanish authorities have since said the plane was English-registered and the dead occupants were British.
The devastating blow comes only days after Alex spoke of trying to piece her life back together following the break-up of her 20-year marriage to Paul.
In an magazine interview last week, the mum-of-one said: "No one should underestimate how separation and divorce can hit you.
"I compare it to a moment where you're driving along the motorway and then the next moment, something beyond your control happens and you're driving in a completely different direction.
"You have to give yourself time to get your head round it."
After the split in November 2017, her husband shacked up with local barmaid Summer Monteys-Fullham, 23, who used to serve them pints in their local boozer in Ickham, Kent.
Last night an online crash report said: “The light plane crashed into a mountain under unknown circumstances.
“It carried two occupants. One body of a deceased occupant has been located.
“At the time of the crash there were foggy weather conditions. The body of the second deceased occupant was found on Thursday 10 January 2019.”
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said: "We are seeking further information from the Spanish authorities following a plane crash in Spain, and will do all we can to assist any British people who need our help."
Source: Read Full Article