The first I head of this tragedy was when Sky News contacted me to ask if they could use the photo that 'Heliport' has linked to ... naturally, there was never any question that they could.
In 2005 I was the official photographer at the World Helicopter Championships at Rouen and, being a fellow Brit, when the British Team flew in, I was naturally drawn to them - when you miss the language and that 'biting' sense of humour, you'd do anything to be a part of it.
I cannot claim that I ever 'knew' Martin Rutty and Simon Lichtenstein, but once you're all lumped in together at Rouen Boos airfield for 5 days, characters tend to stand out - and that hat of Martin's could be seen from a l-o-n-g way away.
The entire British Team made me most welcome and in return for shielding me from the rain and pushing cans of Tizer in my direction, they went home with a reasonable collection of photos (as did the magazine Rotor Torque).
It was following the accident last Thursday that I discovered that Martin and Simon both witnessed the last flight of Gunter Zimmer. I bumped into Herr Zimmer at Montbéliard on a European Championship.
A very sad time for all those involved in Helicopters.
Stuart
Stuart McAlister