Police confirm one death following plane crash

Police have confirmed one person has died after a privately owned light aircraft crashed into the cliff face at Bradda Head yesterday afternoon.

Police released this official statement earlier this evening:

“At around 1pm yesterday, Monday 17^th July 2023, a serious incident occurred at Bradda Head, Port Erin.  We can confirm at this time a privately owned light aircraft crashed into the cliff face at Bradda Head resulting in the death of one person.  We would like to extend our condolences to the family at this deeply upsetting time.   The family are being fully supported by specially trained officers as the investigation into the circumstances of what occurred continues.

Our enquiries have been ongoing extensively since yesterday and we have spoken to a number of people who were present in and around Port Erin when the incident occurred. However, at this time, no further information is being released as we are still undertaking enquiries on behalf of the Coroner in order to establish the full facts and circumstances of what has occurred.   This is currently being done as a multi-agency co-ordination, including the assistance of air crash investigators.

As you can understand, we are in the early stages of our investigation and once we are able to provide further details, we will do so. As part of our enquiries, would like to request that anyone who may have footage of the incident to please make contact with us at Police Headquarters on (01624) 631212, but would respectfully continue to ask that people refrain from speculating on what may have happened, particularly at this extremely distressing time for the family.

The area of Bradda Head remains under Police guard and we advise the public to avoid the area until further notice.  We can confirm the water and air space around this site remains closed and we anticipate this to be the case until at least Friday 21^st July 2023.  We are also reminding the public the temporary restricted airspace for the drones and other flight aircraft remains in force.”