AIR accident investigators last night were probing the cause of a crash on a remote hillside in Tayside which killed a newly-married couple.

The pilot, retired director Robin Laidlaw, 68, and his second wife, Sheila, 47, had only been married for nine days. The couple, from Dalmeny, South Queensferry, had been on a trip from Edinburgh to Perth airport, at Scone.

A huge search was launched when the Piper Cherokee became overdue. The wreckage was discovered 2000ft up a hill, near Amulree, south of Loch Freuchie. Rescuers recovered the two bodies and they were taken to Dundee.

A Tayside Police spokesman said weather conditions at the time of the accident were ``poor''. He said efforts would be made today to bring down the wreckage.

Mr Laidlaw's first wife, Noreen, died last year. In April 1994 he was the pilot of a Cessna aicraft which crashed into a car when landing at Insch airstrip in Aberdeenshire. He was later fined #600 at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for reckless flying.