Aircraft that crashed near Beccles on Norfolk-Suffolk border was reportedly travelling to Northern Ireland

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Four people including Northern Ireland's richest person, Lord Ballyedmond, have been killed after a helicopter crashed in thick fog at a small village on the Norfolk-Suffolk border.

Police were called to the incident at the village of Gillingham, near Beccles, at about 7.30pm on Thursday night. The aircraft was reportedly travelling to Northern Ireland, and it crashed near a stately home owned by Ballyedmond, a peer who on Friday morning was reported to be among the dead.

Ballyedmond, better known as businessman Edward Haughey, was head of the leading veterinary pharmaceuticals company Norbrook Laboratories and Haughey Air, a helicopter charter firm.

Police confirmed that the aircraft was civilian rather than military and that the area of the crash site has been cordoned off. A spokesman confirmed that all four occupants of the aircraft were killed.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said: "Ambulance resources have now been stood down from the scene. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of those who have lost their lives tonight.

"EEAST sent a number of resources to the incident including two ambulance officers, three ambulances, two doctors and one rapid response car."

A screengrab taken from Sky News showing the area in which a helicopter crashed on Thursday evening. Photograph: Sky News

A spokesman for the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said it will be sending a team to investigate.

One Twitter user said that the helicopter came down near his house, which he wrote was near the woodland leading to the small village of Gillingham.

Roland Bronk, owner of The Swan House inn and restaurant in Beccles, said it was "very foggy" in the area. Bronk said he also heard customers talk about "a lot of police activity and ambulances".

It is not yet known whether fog, which beset much of England earlier in the day, played a factor in the crash, although the visibility was reported to be poor in the area on Thursday night.

There have been a series of disasters involving helicopters in recent months. The site is 45 miles from the spot where four crew members died when a US military helicopter crashed in January on a training mission in a nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea.

There have been a series of disasters involving helicopters in recent months. In January this year, a Pave Hawk from RAF Lakenheath was taking part in a low-flying training exercise when it came down in a nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea in Norfolk.

In November last year, 10 people were killed when a helicopter crashed into a pub in Glasgow. All three members of crew died and a further seven people who were in the pub at the time of the incident were also killed.

In August, four people died after a SuperPuma helicopter ditched in the sea off Shetland.