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The owner of a Cumbria tourist attraction has died in a helicopter crash.
The family of Mark Weir, 45, who ran Honister Slate Mine in Borrowdale, near Keswick, raised concerns on Tuesday night when he failed to return home.
Police and mountain rescue teams found a helicopter crashed near the mine early on Wednesday.
His family said they were "totally devastated" by their loss and tourism leaders paid tribute to Mr Weir.
Father-of-three Mr Weir had left the slate mine in his helicopter but when he failed to return to his home in Cockermouth the alarm was raised by his wife.
Cockermouth and Keswick Mountain Rescue Teams were involved in the search along with Cumbria Police.
Mr Weir was found dead in the helicopter at the scene.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...crashscene.jpg
The crashed helicopter was found near the mine



'Spirited dynamism' Visitors to Honister can take guided tours into the mine, where slate is still extracted.
A Honister spokesman said: "Mark was a charismatic Lake District legend with a lust for life and a giant personality.
"He was passionate about everything he did from fatherhood to flying and business.
"He loved questioning authority but won many doubters over through sheer force of his personality."
He said he loved flying and was a fully-trained pilot with decades of experience.
"He is irreplaceable both as a man, a son, a father, a partner, a businessman, a boss and a human being," he said.
Cumbria Tourism chairman Eric Robson said Mr Weir would be enormously missed.
He said: "Mark brought such a spirited dynamism to the debate about creating a thriving tourism economy in the Lakes.
"He genuinely loved Honister and the community of Borrowdale. He was rooted there and wanted to do the best for them."
An investigation is under way into the cause of the crash.

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Anyone know the aircraft type?
A Gazelle

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Mark Weir, 44, was flying solo on a routine flight when the aircraft came down close to the Honister mine between Borrowdale and Buttermere, which he reopened 14 years ago.

A flamboyant entrepreneur, Weir installed the UK's first "via ferrata", or metal climbing ladder, on the cliffs of Honister Crag and took about 60,000 visitors a year on guided tours of the vast warren of passages and caves.
He also restarted production of the celebrated local slate, which has a greenish-blue vein and has been used to roof some of the country's best-known buildings since the early 19th century.

Weir's body was found amid the helicopter's wreckage. He had set off to fly home on Tuesday evening after a day's work. Cockermouth mountain rescue team and a helicopter from RAF Kinross mounted a search and the crash site was found shortly before 1am on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Cumbria police said: "At 10.10pm on Tuesday, police received a call reporting concern for the welfare of 44-year-old John Henry Mark Weir from Mosser in Cockermouth, after he failed to return home after a short routine flight in his helicopter. Sadly, at 12.44am on Wednesday 9 March, a helicopter was found crashed, 200 metres south-east of the Honister slate mine, in Borrowdale. The pilot was found dead in the helicopter at the scene.

"Formal identification is yet to take place. However, it is believed to be local man Mark Weir. His family have been informed and will be supported by trained family liaison officers. Fire and rescue crews attended and the Civil Aviation Authority team from Swanwick has been deployed who will lead the air crash investigation."

A spokesman for Honister slate mine said the attraction's 30 staff were bereft and totally devastated by the loss of their leader, who was a fully trained and experienced pilot and "would never take any risks".

"Mark was a charismatic Lake District legend with a lust for life and a giant personality," he said. "He was passionate about everything he did from fatherhood to flying and business. He loved questioning authority but won many doubters over through sheer force of his personality.

"He was that rare mix of shrewd businessman and creative entrepreneur, just as comfortable in the company of royalty and celebrity as he was driving diggers with slate miners or making tea with the tourists who flocked to the mine. He loved Honister, indeed was Honister. He loved flying, he loved life in the Lake District. He is irreplaceable as a man, a son, a father, a partner, a businessman, a boss and a human being."

Weir and his business partner, Bill Taylor, brought modern marketing techniques to the isolated Honister site, a huddle of grey buildings in a jumble of mines and quarries at the summit of the 356-metre (1,167 foot) pass. A string of celebrities from the Duke of Edinburgh to Kim Wilde visited and posed for photographs as ever more exotic plans for underground and cliff-face attractions were proposed. Trekkers on the coast-to-coast walk that passes over Honister regularly found free tea on offer, alongside souvenir "coast-to-coasters", light enough to carry in their rucksacks.

Weir came from a Lake District family. His grandfather was employed at Honister in its Victorian heyday when more than 100 miners hacked out 3,000 tonnes of slate a year. He left secondary modern school at 16 and worked as a farm labourer and grave digger before building up a business empire that included retirement homes, a pub, fish and chip shops and a helicopter company in Leeds.

He was made Cumbria's director of the year in 2008. Weir is survived by his partner Jan and three children aged between 11 and 14.

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