Light aircraft crash at Stratton on the Fosse today
 

Pilot killed in plane crash near Downside Abbey
A pilot was killed when his aircraft crashed next to Downside Roman Catholic boarding school near Bath, police have said.

The four-seater plane he was flying came down in the grounds of Downside Abbey at Stratton-on-the-Fosse shortly before midday.

A police spokeswoman said ambulance crews were on the ground and the Civil Aviation Agency has been informed.

The Air Accident Investigations Branch has sent a team to investigate.

Andrew Coombs, who farms next to the abbey, said: "It was thick drizzly fog at the time and I heard what sounded like a display stunt team.

"It was a very, very loud intense engine noise like a car door slamming in the distance, then silence."

"Earlier this year, former pupils at the school marked the 70th anniversary of a wartime plane crash which killed nine schoolboys in the grounds."