Boatworks+ chairman was crash plane pilot

LOCAL businessman Ric Wharton was at the controls of the private plane that crashed in Humberside on Saturday, killing one person on board, it emerged yesterday. Mr Wharton, 59 (pictured), the chairman of Boatworks+, was back in his St Andrew's home yesterday. But he was unwilling to talk to reporters when the Guernsey Press called.

Staff at his company would not comment on the condition of their boss yesterday but said that he was expected back at work later in the week.

Mr Wharton is understood to have suffered a dislocated shoulder in the accident and was discharged from hospital in Grimsby on Saturday.

He was flying the three-seater Cessna 421C, partnered by a flight instructor - who suffered burns to the body and cuts to the head - and a test examiner, who died from injuries sustained when the plane hit the ground within Humberside Airport and burst into flames.

Majid Ali Kabbani, 52, from Jedda, Saudi Arabia, was pulled alive from the wreckage but later died.

An inquest has been opened and adjourned by the Grimsby Coroner's office.

His body was flown back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday night.

Coroner Stewart Atkinson is now awaiting the results of a probe by the Aircraft Accidents Investigation Branch.

It is thought that the aircraft was flown from Guernsey to Humberside late last week.

The examiner's death was the first fatality in the airport's 29-year history.

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman confirmed yesterday that investigations were continuing.

Mr Wharton entered the diving industry in 1970 after working as a civil engineer on maritime projects.

He spent many years on projects in the North Sea and formed Wharton Williams Ltd (2W), which soon became one of the largest diving companies in the world.

In 1981, Mr Wharton led 2W in the world-record-breaking salvage of £50m.-worth of gold bullion from the wreck of the cruiser, HMS Edinburgh, which rests 256m (840ft) down in the Barents Sea.

Mr Wharton sold 2W in 1989 and has since set up his own group of small offshore companies based in Aberdeen, Scotland, alongside his work with Boatworks+.