Norfolk Helicopter Crash: Peer Among Victims

One of four people killed in a helicopter crash in Norfolk was Northern Irish peer and businessman Lord Ballyedmond, according to Sky sources.

The helicopter - an AugustaWestland 8W139 - crashed in a wooded area in Gillingham, near Beccles.

The bodies of the four victims remain at the scene and next of kin are still being informed.

It is not yet known what caused the aircraft to come down, but emergency services are at the site carrying out investigations alongside Air Accident Investigations teams.

Sky's Emma Birchley at the scene, said it was unclear whether fog, which had affected the area earlier on Thursday, was a factor in the crash, which happened at around 7.30pm last night.

Emergency services at the site. Pic: Ryan Leddington

"The fog is certainly going to form part of the investigation. It was very foggy last night and it remains foggy now, which has made conditions for the emergency services very tricky," she said.

Chief Inspector Stuart Armes, of Norfolk Police, confirmed all four male occupants on board died in the crash. He said the investigation covered a "considerable area".

The helicopter came down close to Gillingham Hall - one of the homes owned by Lord Ballyedmond, the richest man in Ireland with an estimated wealth of £500m.

As well as being in the in pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing businesses, he also ran an air travel business - Haughey Air - which owned a helicopter charter company.

In 1996, three pilots were killed in a crash while en route from Belfast to his estate in County Down.

It is not yet known if the helicopter the peer was travelling in last night was part of this firm.

Sky's Northern Ireland Correspondent David Blevins said: "The 70-year-old owned Ballyedmond Castle in Rostrevor, County Down, Corby Castle in Cumbria, and 9, Belgrave Square in London, a six-storey townhouse purchased in 2006 for about £12m.

Traffic backed up on the A143 near the crash scene. Pic: dom_bond

"In the early nineties, he sat in the Irish Senate (Dublin's upper house) before being made a life peer in the Lords in 2004. Lord Ballyedmond initially sat as an Ulster Unionist before switching to the Conservative Party."

Inspector Louis Provart said emergency services were alerted after people living near the crash reported hearing a loud bang.

Roland Bronk, owner of The Swan House restaurant in Beccles, said it was "very foggy" in the area at the time of the crash.

Taxi driver Mark Murray, 22, from Beccles, said: "There is a large stately home nearby and you often see helicopters coming and going from there.

"When they have a game shoot the guests often all arrive in separate helicopters. We don't know if that is linked, but that's the only helicopter activity we see in this area."

The site is just 45 miles from Cley next the Sea, where four US airmen were killed in January when their Pave Hawk military helicopter came down in a marsh.

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