THE pilot of a microlight plane who died when his aircraft crashed in the southern Highlands in Stirlingshire was an experienced flier and secretary of Scotland's largest flying club.
His passenger, who also died in the unexplained crash, was a member of the same club and was learning to fly.
David Martin, 63, from Kinghorn in Fife, was the pilot of the plane that crashed on Ben More, near Crianlarich, on Saturday. He was secretary of the Scottish Aero Club, based at Perth Airport in Scone.
Alan McCaskie, 62, from Broughty Ferry near Dundee, an oil and gas engineering consultant and a trainee pilot, is believed to have been the passenger.
The aircraft is understood to have gone down near the summit of Ben More at around noon.
Central Scotland Police yesterday said inquiries were continuing into the crash, and an investigation has been launched by the Air Accident Investigation Board.
Dave McElroy, chairman of the Scottish Aero Club, said the organisation and the flier's families were "devastated" by the deaths.
Mr Martin, a retired health and safety consultant, had been a pilot for 12 years and had been secretary of the flying club for the past four years. He leaves a wife and two daughters.
Mr McCaskie, who was learning to fly and hoping to qualify in the summer, leaves a wife and a son.
Mr McElroy said conditions had been "quite good" and four planes in total, including the crashed microlight, had made the same trip to Mull.
He said the club had " no idea" what had happened to the microlight but had given a substantial amount of information to two investigations.
"Dave was a very active and popular
man and was very actively involved with the club," Mr McElroy said.
"Obviously his family are devastated, and also the club is devastated by his loss, both personally and also because he was such a key member of our club."
Of Mr McCaskie, Mr McElroy said: "He joined last summer and he was learning to fly.
"He was very passionate about flying, very affable and a well-liked member of the club.
"His wife and family are devastated."
The accident comes only a month after another pilot was killed when the microlight he was flying crashed in a field in Clackmannanshire.
Adrian Peterson's Gemini Flash plane broke up in mid-air over the field in Kennet.
Ben More reaches 3851ft in height, and is the largest mountain in the southern Highlands.
The Scottish Aero Club is the oldest and largest flying club in Scotland and operates out of the former Second World War training airfield at Scone in Perthshire.
The club has an active membership of about 250 flyers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article