A young British man and his Spanish flight instructor have died in a plane crash in Spain after the light aircraft they were travelling in crashed in a natural park on Wednesday.
The pair took off in plane from an aerodrome in Velez-Malaga, east of Malaga, and were flying to the coastal city of Valencia when the tragedy occurred just after midnight, when they went down around Cerro del Fraile, a peak of volcanic origin in the Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park.
No Mayday calls were made before the plane crashed, which occurred just minutes after the pair stopped to refuel at nearby Almeria Airport before continuing their journey.
Several Hollywood movies including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly were shot in the picturesque area.
The pilot has been named as 24-year-old Rafael Ricote, who worked as an instructor at the nearby One Air Diamond Flight Centre, while his student, a 26-year-old identified locally only by his first name Marcus.
Marcus has been described as a Costa del Sol-based man from a ‘family of British origin.’
The light aircraft crashed close to midnight on Wednesday east of Malaga, Spain
No Mayday calls were made before the plane crashed, which occurred just minutes after the pair stopped to refuel at nearby Almeria Airport
The plane went down in the area around Cerro del Fraile (pictured)
Civil Guard mountain rescue experts recovered the men’s bodies from the wreckage of the plane, which was captured by local media.
The mangled body of the plane was seen being searched by local police and civil aviation accident investigators, who have since launched separate investigations into the incident.
Civil Guard officers in Almeria said they were not in a position to confirm the nationalities of the two men that died.
A spokesman for a regional government-run emergency response coordination centre confirmed: ‘Two people died in an air accident in the early hours of Wednesday morning in the municipality of Nijar.
‘An emergency call was received around 12.30am from Valencia Airport indicating contact had been lost with a light aircraft in the area around Cerro del Fraile.
‘The caller indicated the plane belonged to a flight training school in Malaga and was heading to Valencia with two people on board.
‘Firefighters were immediately alerted as well as police forces including the Civil Guard and National Police, coastguards, civil protection workers and other responders.
‘Fire crews subsequently confirmed they had found the bodies of two people in a difficult-to-access area around Cerro del Fraile.’
Tributes have been paid on social media to Rafael Ricote, who came from the southern Spanish city of Cordoba.
One friend said: ‘He’d dreamed of being a pilot since he was a little boy. He was a wonderful person.’
MailOnline has contacted One Air Diamond Flight Centre for comment.
More to follow.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Mail Online
