The owner of a plane that crashed in the English Channel with two people was revealed as a member of the City of London. The 46-year-old Piper PA-28R-200 Cherokee Arrow II landed on Saturday morning just over an hour after leaving Wellesbourne Mountford Airport near Stratford-upon-Avon. As the search for survivors continued on Sunday, it emerged that the single-engine plane belonged to Flying Instructor Guy Wakeley, 51, who is also a well-known chief financial officer. Mr. Wakeley is a member of the teaching and examination team at Wellesbourne-based South Warwickshire Flying School. A former CEO of Morrison Facilities Services and Equiniti, Mr. Wakeley is a Cambridge graduate with a PhD in engineering.
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He is currently listed as a non-executive director at the City of London HgCapital Trust plc. Mr Wakeley’s plane was on a group of six planes connected to the South Warwickshire Flying School. The pilots and passengers of the other planes were assisting the authorities in investigations on Sunday, said a source in the emergency services in France. The Flying School had announced Saturday’s trip to France as “Club Fly-Out to Le Touquet”. By 3 a.m. Sunday, there were still no signs from the plane, or any debris or survivors. Ray Stock, head of training at Flying School, declined to discuss Sunday who was on board the plane at the time of the crash. An emergency air and sea rescue operation began in the English Channel a few minutes after Saturday’s crash. The Piper PA-28 was on a group of aircraft heading to the resort of Le Touquet in northern France. “He fell into British waters for an unknown reason,” said a spokesman for the French emergency services. “The British Coast Guard has launched an operation backed by French aircraft and vessels, including the Abeille-Languedoc (Languedoc Bee) tug, which has been chartered by the French Navy,” he added. A spokesman for France’s Maritime Prefecture said the large-scale search was suspended on Saturday night as rescuers said they would continue with the first light of Sunday. “The plane was traveling from Wellesbourne to Le Touquet with two people before disappearing from the radar,” said a spokesman for the prefecture. Flight records show that the Piper PA-28R-200 Cherokee Arrow II with registration number G-EGVA departed from Wellesbourne at 7.56 am. on Saturday and appeared to be coming out of radar over the canal at 9:02 a.m. He was about to land in Le Touquet, France, but failed to arrive. The plane was built in 1976 and has four seats. In addition to the Abeille Languedoc, the large search included a French Navy Falcon 50 jet and a Dauphin helicopter. Ships in the English Channel were also notified of the disappearance, but by nightfall there was no sign of the plane, no wreckage. “The search continued throughout the afternoon, without being able to locate any wreckage or aircraft wreckage,” said a spokesman for the prefecture. He added: “Early Saturday afternoon, without fully investigating the possible area of the disappearance, the investigations were suspended. “They will resume Sunday morning on a Dauphin helicopter flight.” Those traveling by small aircraft such as the Piper PA-28 are usually equipped with life jackets and life rafts. While the plane may have sunk in the English Channel, rescuers hope to find the pilot and passenger on the surface. The PA-28 is a two-seater or four-seater aircraft built by the American company Piper, as an instructor, air taxi or for personal transport. It has been produced since 1960 and various models have been involved in many high profile accidents at that time. In August 1972, Queen William of Gloucester, the Queen’s cousin, was killed along with his co-pilot in a Piper Cherokee Arrow after crashing off the Halfpenny Green near Wolverhampton during an air raid.
