Date:	Thursday 30 April 1987
Time:	10:06
Type:	Cessna F172M (Reims)
Owner/operator:	Etienne Laenen (pilot)
Registration:	OO-JEL
MSN:	F172-1251
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Other fatalities:	2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Category:	Accident
Location:	Solent Channel, 3 miles ENE of Ryde, Isle of Wight -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Antwerp International Airport (ANR/EBAW)
Destination airport:	Exeter International Airport (EXT/EGTE)
Investigating agency:	AAIB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
The aircraft was on a flight from Antwerp to Exeter. It was refueled to full tanks before departure and radio telephony (RTF) communications were satisfactory throughout the flight, although the pilot appeared to have difficulty with non-routine messages.

The cloud cover on the route was reported to be layered strato cumulus. The aircraft was flown at heights of between 1000ft, and 4500ft in order to avoid entering cloud. Upon approaching the Solent area, Southampton Air Traffic Control (ATC) asked the pilot if he could descend from 3500ft to 3000ft and accept a re-routing to take the aircraft north of the Bournemouth (Hurn) area. The pilot agreed and was asked to turn onto a heading of 360° magnetic, a 110° turn to the right, which he again accepted.

Shortly afterwards the aircraft was seen to dive out of low cloud, apparently fast and under power, and strike the yacht “Spartina”. The aircraft and yacht disintegrated and sank. The three occupants of the aircraft were killed, as were the two persons onboard the yacht. Very little wreckage was recovered.

The accident was probably the result of the pilot continuing VFR flight into adverse weather conditions for which he was neither trained nor qualified. The weather, and manoeuvres carried out by the pilot, would have been conducive to spatial disorientation, with conquest loss of control of the aircraft.

A contemporary local newspaper report named three of the five of the fatalities ("Aberdeen Press and Journal" - Saturday 2 May 1987)

"Body hunt

SEARCHERS were hunting for a fifth body yesterday after Thursday's freak accident in which light plane hit and sank a small boat.

Mr Leonard Tebbutt (68), of Sandford, Isle of Wight, owner and builder of the 24ft sloop Spartina, is missing presumed dead.

The four bodies recovered are those of a Belgian couple and their niece, who were flying the four-seat Cessna from Antwerp to Exeter, and that of Mr Tebbutt’s friend Robert Windshlp (58).

The boat disintegrated in the accident off the Isle of Wight - police described it as a "freak, one in million chance".

Investigators ate trying to establish why the plane plummeted through thick mist and low cloud to bounce on the waves before hitting the boat."

A contemporary local newspaper report also covered the inquest into the three fatalities ("Aberdeen Press and Journal" - Tuesday 14 July 1987)

"Crash pilot ‘could not pull up’

A PILOT, one of five people killed when his aircraft crashed near a yacht in the Solent, was not properly qualified to make the trip, an Inquest was told yesterday.

At the time there was low thick cloud and poor visibility, and Etienne Laenen became disorientated, allowing his light aircraft drop to a height he could not pull up from, the Jury heard. The Belgian pilot got into trouble because he was only qualified to fly visually and did not know how to rely on instruments while flying in cloud.

Mr Laenen, 38. from Antwerp, and two others died instantly when the aircraft plunged into the sea off the Isle of Wight, only yards from the sloop Spartina. Two retired college lecturers were on board the Spartina. Details of their injuries were so gruesome that a member of the jury collapsed during the hearing.

The jury returned verdicts of accidental death"

1. Staffordshire Sentinel - Thursday 30 April 1987
2. Dundee Courier - Friday 1 May 1987
3. Aberdeen Press and Journal - Saturday 2 May 1987
4. Aberdeen Evening Express - Wednesday 6 May 1987
5. Aberdeen Press and Journal - Tuesday 14 July 1987
6. AAIB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422fc3eed915d13710008a3/4-1988_OO-JEL.pdf
7. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1992/jul/15/air-accidents
8. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=17867.0
9. Cessna F172M OO-JEL at Antwerp 28 January 1978: http://www.asa-be.com/images/PhotoGallery_BCR2/OO-JAA/OO-JEL.jpg

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Apr-2008 07:00	ASN archive	Added
30-Sep-2011 05:54	Uli Elch	Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative]
04-Dec-2011 04:44	DAMOLE	Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
07-Dec-2015 01:08	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
16-Nov-2020 19:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative, Accident report]