Probe Starts into Fatal Plane Crash

Published 6th Apr 2015

Air accident investigators are looking into the crash of a light aircraft in which a GP and her husband died. The Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) has been dispatched to Oban, Argyll and Bute, following the crash on Saturday. Doctor Margaret Ann Rous, 37, and her husband, engineer David Rous, 28, were killed when their Piper Cherokee plane went down. The couple, who lived in Newport-on-Tay in Fife, were reportedly heading from Dundee to visit relatives on the Hebridean isle of Tiree when tragedy hit. Dr Rous' sister Johann Maclean paid tribute to her in a message posted on Facebook. Referencing the Black Eyed Peas' song Meet Me Halfway, she wrote: "Big sister, it's our song, I am going to sing this to you everyday for the rest of my life! You were my absolute rock, and I promise to meet you halfway one day! Today has been the hardest day of my life, I love you Minnie.'' She also thanked friends and family for their sympathy messages. "Thank you all for the heartfelt messages, phone calls and visits,'' she wrote. "We appreciate your thoughts at this heartbreaking time.'' Searchers discovered the wreckage on Saturday night after radar contact with the aircraft was lost earlier in the day. The loss of contact had prompted a multi-emergency response involving the police, ambulance service and the coastguard. Following the discovery of the wreckage, specialist officers remained at the scene in the Beinn nan Lus area of Glen Kinglass. Inquiries are continuing into the cause of the accident. An AAIB spokeswoman said: "The investigators are in Oban now. It's an ongoing investigation, so we are not making a comment or issuing a statement.'' A coastguard spokesman said: "We got a call from Kinloss about the aircraft going missing at 1.53pm on April 4 and we tasked Oban, Appen and Loch Goil coastguard rescue teams and the Oban lifeboat to search the area and surrounding hills. "When police and the mountain rescue team located the wreckage, they let us know and we got word to stand down at around 4.15pm.'' Flying conditions were reportedly difficult at the time of the crash. The spokesman added: "Our teams did not pass on any information about the conditions. "It might have been difficult for any air unit searching but we had mostly ground units and the lifeboat doing the search for us.''