As one of the very few people that witnessed this event I am amazed at the depth of knowledge that some people appear to have on the subject.
It has been said on here that Popham was closed. That is not the case.
Popham did not close that day, since so few people were flying it was just not necessary. When Popham does close it is usually to preserve the runways and so is done when it appears the weather may be good enough to fly, but use of the runways would churn them up. When it is bad weather it is just taken as read.
However,
Popham would NEVER turn away an aircraft that needed to land. Even if the runways are closed we would accept a divert. Popham being 'closed' is NOT an issue here.
The weather earlier in the day had been vile but by 3pm it had cleared and whilst there was low cloud, estimated at about 400ft, it was clear beneath with visibility estimated at 5K. The wind was 10 - 15 kts from the north east. It as NOT foggy and it was NOT raining. It may have been elsewhere but if you are going to comment at what was going on at Popham you might as well try to get it right.
I am not going to comment on 'what if's' and even what happened as I have made my statement to the AAIB and the investigation is ongoing.
It was a sad and shocking thing to witness but we were able to get the emergency services there very quickly and the South Central Air Ambulance was there in 8 minutes and located the aeorplane immediately with directions from Popham.
The state of the weather elsewhere, and the decision making of the pilot is not for me to comment on, as I was not there, and the AAIB report will cover this. Most of what falls outside this is supposition.
Melvyn Hiscock