A PENSIONER was killed when the WW2 plane flight his children had bought him for his 85th birthday crashed into a tree.
Retired farmer Benjamin John Marshall, 84, died as the aircraft collided with a tree, turning into a “fireball” as his horrified children looked on.
An inquest in Norwich yesterday was shown the two-seater’s final approach as it came in to land next to Hardwick Airfield near Bungay, Suffolk, in October 2016, the Leicester Mercury reported.
After being blown to the left by a cross wind, the aircraft tried to abort its landing, but it was unable to climb high enough to avoid hitting a nearby tree.
Recounting the crash, son Robert said his dad had an interest in military aircraft.
He said that everything had been going well for the first 50 minutes but as it came into land, he thought “that was hard.”
He said: “My next recollection was Chris saying ‘run, it’s going to hit us’.
“My immediate thought was that I have to get Dad out.”
Emergency crews rushed to the scene to try to help the elderly man out of the plane.
The plane’s owner and pilot, Maurice Hammond, survived the crash, suffering a broken neck, shoulder and ribs. He spent more than five weeks in hospital recovering after the crash.
Norfolk Area coroner Yvonne Blake said that Mr Marshall’s preliminary medical cause of death as severe traumatic head and neck injuries.
An AAIB report found there was no evidence of any aircraft system failure.
The inquest is due to resume today.