It had already suffered damage from a forced landing last Saturday, but was sitting harmlessly in a field (with its pilots in a local hospital) when vandals smashed the canopy and cockpit instruments and set fire to both wings. The Pilatus P2 was one of only two in the UK, and following the attack it appears unlikely it will ever fly again. “It just shows that there are a lot of morons in the world who have no respect for anything,” Patrick Bryan, radio operator at Spanhoe Airfield (the aircraft’s intended destination), told a local newspaper. The aircraft’s pilot is believed to have owned the aircraft for just ten days prior to suffering the in-flight engine failure that led to the off-airport crash landing. The aircraft’s landing gear collapsed as it came down in a wheat field and its propeller impacted the ground, but the Pilatus had come to rest on its belly and largely intact. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch is seeking a report from the pilot who along with one passenger suffered only minor injuries.
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