A pilot involved in a fatal light aircraft crash while on his way back to Carlisle Airport was flying in conditions for which he was not qualified, an accident report has revealed.
Pilot Anthony Woodward, 62, and his friend Robert Archer, 57, died when their plane crashed into the sea amid thick fog two miles off the coast of Skipness on the Kintyre peninsula on May 25 last year.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) found that Mr Woodward had not completed the required training to fly in visibility below 1,500 metres.
The victims flew from Carlisle Lake District Airport to Oban on May 20 before completing an ascent of Ben Nevis for charity.
It was during their return to Cumbria that the crash occurred.
Air traffic controllers raised the alarm after communication with the Piper PA-28 Cherokee aircraft ceased. Floating wreckage and the bodies of the men were later recovered from the sea.
The AAIB reported that Mr Woodward "might not have been aware of how poor the conditions had become" due to the gradual reduction in visibility.
"Flying in such conditions would have markedly increased the pilot's workload and stress while reducing his capacity to make decisions," the report concluded.
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