NINE crew members were killed yesterday when their RAF Hercules plane

crashed into a remote hillside in Perthshire and burst into flames.

Wreckage from the plane was scattered over a 150-yard wide area in

Glen Tilt, about 10 miles north-east of Blair Atholl, on the Atholl

estate.

The front section of the Hercules, lying at the bottom of a valley,

was damaged beyond recognition. Firefighters were tackling a large

number of patches of burning heather.

As darkness fell late last night, the RAF confirmed that five bodies

had been found. A spokesman said the search for the other four would

continue this morning.

The Hercules, normally based at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, was one of

three on a low-flying training exercise, heading to RAF Lossiemouth.

Weather conditions were good when it crashed at 3.55pm.

A huge rescue operation began as soon as the alarm was raised by an

estate gamekeeper, Mr Alistair Keiller. He heard an explosion, saw the

flames, and rode eight miles down the glen on an all-terrain vehicle to

call the police.

RAF Sea King helicopters from Lossiemouth, Prestwick, and Boulmer were

joined by RAF mountain rescue teams from Kinloss and Leuchars, a medical

team from Dundee's Ninewells Hospital, and police and fire crews. A

Nimrod from Kinloss co-ordinated the operation, and a 10-mile aviation

exclusion zone was declared around the area.

Initial reports suggested that all nine people on the Hercules were

killed on impact. The hill was thought to be 3675ft Beinn a' Ghlo,

overlooking Loch Loch, near the spot where a fighter plane crashed

during the Second World War.

John Rankin, of Hamilton Place, Perth, was climbing to the summit of

2700ft Ben Brackie with his wife and 13-year-old daughter when they saw

the aircraft flying below them.

''We were very surprised by the sight, but we thought little of it

until we saw a plume of smoke about two miles away. The Hercules did not

appear to be in any trouble. We just thought it was on a low-flying

exercise,'' he said.

His daughter, Elise, took photographs of the plane, which were later

handed to the police. It is also understood that footage of the Hercules

was taken by a hillwalker with a video camera.

An RAF board of inquiry has been set up and is expected to have

reached the crash scene by first light today. The board of three will be

headed by a wing commander with extensive knowledge of Hercules planes,

and will liaise with a team from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

Members of the two RAF mountain rescue teams were guarding the wreckage

last night, and police cordoned off the estate.

Hercules planes frequently fly at low levels in the Highland area of

Perthshire. They are not allowed to go below 300ft and at less than 450

knots but, with a wing span of more than 150ft, they have little room

for manoeuvre in the mountainous terrain around Blair Atholl.

Mr Andrew Gordon, the factor of 140,000-acre Atholl Estates, said that

the area was often used for low-level training flights, ''but no more

than any other glen in Scotland''.

Other residents said they had been aware of the planes but had not

paid any attention because they heard so many flying low overhead.

Yesterday's crash came 10 days after another alert involving a

low-flying Hercules over the Scottish hills. The plane passed so low

over the village school at Finzean, on Deeside, that it was thought to

be crashing and the alarm was raised.

There have been a number of fatal crashes involving RAF crew over

Scotland in the last decade. One of the worst came in 1990, when 10

airmen from Lossiemouth died when their Shackleton bomber crashed into a

hill on Harris in thick mist.

The C-130 Hercules, affectionately known as ''Fat Albert'', is used as

a heavy duty transport aircraft. Operated by the RAF since 1968, the

workhorse planes played a key role during the Falkland and Gulf wars.

They have also been used in operations in the former Yugoslavia,

Kurdistan, and Somalia.

Built by the US giant Lockheed, the Hercules, with a crew of five, is

regarded as a versatile and rugged aircraft with an excellent safety

record.

The oldest are now 26 years old and are rapidly using up their fatigue

life, because of the surge in their use since the run-up to the Gulf war

in 1990.

The Ministry of Defence plans to issue invitations to industry later

this year to tender for refurbishment work on the 30 oldest Hercules. It

is expected they will continue operations into the twenty-first century,

when the favourite to replace them is an upgraded model known as the

C-130J.