A NOVICE pilot who crashed his plane into the sea on his first solo flight planned his kamikaze-style suicide months in advance, claiming it was ''his destiny'', an inquest heard yesterday.
Former hotelier and company director Terry Brand, 45, began flying lessons three months before his death with the sole intention of killing himself in a blaze of glory.
On November 6 this year, on the day of his death, he left a suicide note and a Buddhist poem in which he claimed he was relieved to be going to his death. With two broken marriages and a failed love affair behind him and facing financial ruin he felt suicide was the only honourable option.
The father-of-three, who had recently converted to Buddhism, completed a circuit around Bournemouth Airport before flying out over the south coast to his death.
Shocked air traffic controllers could only listen helplessly as he radioed a last message saying ''give my apologies to everyone'' and then calmly rolled his Piper light aircraft into the sea.
The broken plane, with its propeller embedded in the sea floor, was discovered 1.3 miles off Boscombe Pier, Bournemouth, in 17ft of water.
Police divers found Mr Brand's body lying face down close to the wreckage.
The inquest at Bournemouth heard extracts from his final letters, found at his home in Charminster, Bournemouth, in which he explained his death wish and apologised to those who loved him.
He wrote: ''I have been trying to go for some time, but until now I have not flown solo, today will be my third attempt. I have made my peace with so many in recent weeks, allow me to leave now.''
He asked his family not to resent him for his actions, adding: ''My full intention in learning to fly was to move on in one dramatic moment - my actions are pre-meditated and calculated.''
Coroner Nigel Neville-Jones recorded a verdict of suicide.
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