Investigators will today begin the painstaking work of establishing why an RAF Tornado jet slammed into a Scottish hillside with the loss of two crew.
Investigators will today begin the painstaking work of establishing why an RAF Tornado jet slammed into a Scottish hillside with the loss of two crew.
The Royal Air Force personnel were flying a Tornado F3 jet with the 43 Squadron, which will be wound up in September after nearly 100 years in operation.
Both personnel are almost certain to have been killed instantly when their aircraft ploughed into a hillside in Glen Kinglass, near the Rest And Be Thankful, late yesterday morning.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "It is with deep regret that the MoD must confirm the deaths of two RAF air crew from 43 Squadron, RAF Leuchars, in a Tornado F3 crash today.
"The aircraft crashed during a routine training flight at 11.45am at Glen Kinglass in Argyll.
"The next of kin have been informed and have requested a period of 24 hours grace before further details are released."
He continued: "At the moment our thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends and colleagues of the two aircrew who lost their lives today."
Recovery teams were yesterday combing the site, near to the Rest And Be Thankful tourist stop about half-way up the glen.
Search and rescue helicopters from RAF Lossiemouth and the HMS Gannett naval base were scrambled to scour the remote area for survivors and wreckage, and air accident investigators will carry out a detailed survey of the site in a bid to establish the cause of the crash.
Tornado fighters are among the most tried-and-tested aircraft in the RAF's arsenal, having been in service since the height of the Cold War.
The planes typically fly at speeds of almost 500mph, and are regularly involved in training exercises just a few hundred feet above ground level.
Yesterday, however, witnesses suggested that the planes may have been flying even lower than they usually would.
Andy Graham, 60, a retired rigger who moved to Arrochar three years ago, said he saw two Tornados flying low in the area around lunchtime.
He said: "We get jets flying over here on training exercises quite regularly. It's not unusual to see them and you definitely hear them.
"But today they seemed to be flying much lower than normal. We watched them fly along the loch, up through the glen and towards the Rest And Be Thankful."
Long seen as the flagship fighter of the RAF, the Tornado F3 is due to be phased out over the next three years and replaced with the more up-to-date Eurofighter Typhoon.
In readiness for the new arrival the RAF Leuchars Tornado fleet will be cut from 25 to 12 after the summer, and all of the aircraft will be flown by crews from 111 Squadron. The two crewmembers who died yesterday had been expected to remain at Leuchars and fly the new Typhoon fighters when they were delivered.
Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat MP for the North East Fife constituency which includes RAF Leuchars, said the sympathy of the community would be with the family and friends of the dead crewmembers.
He said: "This tragic accident is yet another reminder of the risks which our service men and women have to face every day.
"The professionalism of the Royal Air Force is only assured by their constant training and preparation for combat."
43 Squadron, known as the "Fighting Cocks" among air force colleagues, is the last surviving front-line fighter squadron formed in Scotland. First raised in Stirling in 1916, 43 saw service at the Battle of Britain and Dunkirk, and only recently returned from Iraq where it spearheaded the coalition invasion plans.
