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21 December 2004
MALAGA -A newly-married British couple who were killed in a helicopter crash hours after their wedding in the mountains of Spain’s Costa del Sol have been named.
Michael Gregory, 37, from Leicester, England and Jeanette Hodgson, 40, from Greenwich, London, died in the crash along with a Spanish pilot.
The couple had moved to the Costa del Sol to set up an Astro Turf business in Estepona, near Malaga.
They married in nearby Gibraltar earlier on Monday before taking off on the fateful flight.
Another pilot, who was a passenger in the helicopter, was rescued from the scene of the crash near Marbella, in southern Spain.
The tragedy happened as relatives of the British couple waited for the newly-weds to arrive for a reception.
The pilot and the groom died instantly and the bride died moments later when she was about to be transferred to the medical centre.
A third passenger was evacuated in a helicopter by emergency services to the Hospital Clinico Universitario near Marbella.
Gregory and Hodgson were flying from Nerja to Mijas, enjoying a tourist flight along the Costa del Sol.
The brother of the bride said last night that after taking off from the aerodrome at Axarquia, in Velez Malaga, the couple planned to meet their relatives and friends in Mijas.
Relatives were said to be “shocked beyond belief”.
Police sources in Marbella told the Spanish news agency EFE a witness saw the helicopter was “moving strangely” just before it crashed.
Seconds later, the witness heard a loud explosion as the helicopter crashed.
The helicopter belonged to a private company and crashed in a mountainous area called La Concha near the area of Istan.
It is believed the helicopter crashed after losing control and may have tried to land in a steep hillside.
The helicopter, a Robinson 44 four-seater, took off at 1.20pm local time from the aerodrome at Leoni Benabu at Velez-Malaga.
The helicopter was owned by the pilot who died in the crash, Salvador Alarcón, a member of the Real Aeroclub of Malaga.
The cause of the accident was not clear last night but authorities discounted weather conditions.
The bodies of the dead were removed from the scene of the crash on Tuesday.
Monday’s tragedy brings to 46 the number of people killed in helicopter crashes since 2000.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news