(Newswire.net — August 2, 2015) — Hampshire, UK – Pilot and three members of Bin Laden family died in airplane crash Friday, after their state-of-the-art jet overshot long runway at Blackbushe airport in the UK, the Guardian reported.
The 2010 Embraer EMB 505 Phenom 300, Saudi registration HZ-IBN, had departed from Milan’s Malpensa airport. It was carrying Osama bin Laden’s stepmother Rajaa Hashim, his half-sister Sana bin Laden, and her husband Zuhair Hashim, according to NBC News. The pilot has not yet been identified. They all died when the plane overshot the runway in attempt to land, crashed into cars in a parking lot nearby.
The accident raised questions because the £7m state-of-the-art Embraer Phenom 300 jet was equipped with fly-by-wire electronic system that is supposed to make it easy to control. The runway is equipped with precision approach system (PAPIS) with Visual Approaching Slope Indicator (VASI) which consists of four lights that indicates the aircraft’s position according to guide slope. If the airplane is too high all VASI lights are white, or red if the plane is too low. Matching two red and two white lights, the pilot is confident the plane is on right descend path toward runway.
The airplane was also equipped with IFR (Instrumental Flight Rules) technology that enables the pilot to land the plane under harsh weather conditions, in zero visibility. At the time of the crash, the weather was in near perfect conditions with good visibility, and the runway is long enough to land jumbo-jet. Given all that, the aviation community agrees that an amateur could easily land the airplane, and bin Laden’s family pilot certainly was an experienced professional.
Despite Osama’s terrorist background, Bin Laden family is a prominent Saudi Arabia clan with vast business interests, the Guardian reported. Before official confirmation of the identities of the victims, the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf al Saud offered condolences on the embassy’s official Twitter account.
“His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz, the ambassador of the custodian of the two holy mosques to the United Kingdom, offered his condolences to the sons of the late Mohammed bin Laden and their relations for the grave incident of the crash of the plane carrying members of the family at Blackbushe airport,” the Saudi ambassador said in the tweet.
According to a further statement, the embassy would work along the British authorities to ensure a quick repatriation of the bodies for burial. Reportedly, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation has sent investigators to the scene of the crash. The investigators work closely with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which is looking into the causes of the accident.