A 16-year-old boy and an 80-year-old man died after a light aircraft crashed near Drymen in central Scotland on Friday afternoon. Emergency services were called to the site, close to Loch Lomond in the Stirling Council area, at about 16:45 BST. Police said both occupants were pronounced dead at the scene and their next of kin had been informed.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch sent a team to the area to collect evidence and begin a safety investigation. Temporary restrictions were placed on the airspace above the crash site while that work continued. Police officers also secured access near Old Drymen Road, with a gate leading toward the hillside where the aircraft appeared to have come down cordoned off on Saturday.
The aircraft was a Piper Tomahawk II registered to Leading Edge Flight Training in Renfrew, according to Civil Aviation Authority registration information cited by the BBC. Flight data showed it departing Glasgow Airport at 16:17 on Friday. Its transmission ended at 16:37, several miles north-east of Drymen. The available evidence does not establish why the aircraft crashed, and the investigation had not announced a cause.
The plane had completed several movements earlier in the day. It left Cumbernauld Airport at 11:46 and reached Glasgow about 15 minutes later. After remaining there until around 13:00, it made a roughly two-hour flight north-east to Newport-on-Tay and returned to Glasgow. It spent just over an hour on the ground before taking off on the final flight. That itinerary provides investigators with a timeline, but it does not by itself indicate a mechanical or operational problem.
Residents reported a substantial emergency response. Colin Cameron, who lives in Drymen, told the BBC that he saw police and ambulance crews, a serious-incident unit, specialist fire vehicles and two helicopters. He said he learned only on Saturday morning that the emergency involved a light aircraft. Officers and police vehicles remained visible near the location as investigators started their work.
Gavin Birch-Williams, managing director of Glasgow Airport, confirmed that the airport was aware of an incident involving an aircraft that had departed from Glasgow. He expressed sympathy to the victims’ families and friends. Police did not identify the two people in the initial account beyond their ages.
The AAIB’s role is to establish the circumstances and safety lessons of civil aviation accidents rather than assign criminal blame. Its investigators typically examine the wreckage, operating history, flight information and other available evidence before reaching conclusions. Until that process advances, the confirmed facts are limited: two people were aboard, both died at the scene, the aircraft had recently departed Glasgow, and its final transmission was recorded shortly before emergency services were summoned.
