Former brother-in-law of Paul Hollywood is killed in Spanish plane crash

Former brother-in-law of Paul Hollywood is killed in Spanish plane crash alongside British passenger after their light aircraft smashed into mist-covered mountain.

• Simon Moores, 62, of Westgate-on-Sea, Kent died in a place crash in Spain
• Mr Moores was the brother-in-law of celebrity chef Paul Hollywood, 52
• Aircraft took off from Portuguese town of Cascais but crashed in northern Spain
• British registered Piper plane was carrying two people towards Hondarribia
• Rescuers have found two bodies as well as aircraft wreckage on mountainside
• Audio has emerged of the pilot changing the plane’s route before the crash

The pilot killed in a plane crash in Spain has been named as Simon Moores, the brother-in-law of celebrity chef Paul Hollywood.

Mr Moores, 62, died when his aircraft came down near Errezil in the north of the country on Wednesday, leaving his family devastated.

Pilot and father-of-two Simon is the brother of Alexandra Hollywood, 54, who recently split from Paul.

Mr Moores’ devastated family confirmed his death from their home on Thursday.

The Piper PA-28 plane took off from Cascais, southern Portugal, and was heading towards Hondarribia airfield in northern Spain when it crashed in misty conditions on the 3,500ft Hernio mountain early on Wednesday afternoon.

Rescuers recovered one body last night before calling off the search in failing light. This morning a second body was found when the search resumed. Sources suggest the two people on board were British.

An audio recording of the crash emerged of Mr Moores changing the plane’s route before the aircraft crashed into a Spanish mountain, killing him and a second Briton.

Early indications suggest the aircraft might have had a fault in its altitude equipment meaning the pilot might not have realised how low the plane was.

It comes as a recording emerged of what is thought to have been the pilot’s last communication before the crash, in which a change of route was discussed with air traffic control.

Before his death Simon, who owns an aircraft banner business, was scathing over Mr Hollywood’s split with his sister.

Alexandra was married to the Bake Off star for 19 years, he is now with a 23-year-old barmaid Summer Monteys-Fullam. Mr Moores said the relationship would ‘end in tears’.

Pictures from the scene show foggy skies and the charred remains of the British-registered aircraft 160ft from the summit, high up in the Basque Region mountain range.

Contact is said to have been lost with the plane shortly after 1pm when it was in transit between Bilbao and Hondarribia. A local then raised the alarm after hearing an explosion.

One witness told the Spanish press: ‘I heard the noise of the plane, followed by a crash and then everything was silent.’

Mr Moores, a former ‘Technology Ambassador’ for the British Government and Vice President of the Westminster-based Conservative Science and Technology Forum was a keen flyer.

He regularly updated followers on social media with images both of and from planes.

On the day he died, January 9, he posted stunning images from over Spanish mountains.

Although he would later encounter dangerous fog and misty mountains the day appeared clear.

At 7.24am he wrote about a route alteration.

He said: ‘Dawn’s early light – apparently Biarritz make it very difficult to refuel so go to San Sebastian instead.’

Another tweet, his final message, followed at 10.02am with the cockpit pictures, captioned: ‘Mountains of Mid Spain.’

The active father-of-two and husband was also a former councillor in Thanet, Kent.

One neighbour of Mr Moores, who didn’t want to be named, said: ‘Simon is such a lovely man. I can’t believe it. I knew he was a pilot.

‘My heart goes out to his family.’

Written by BayRadio