Bin Laden jet 'crashed after avoiding a microlight'

Three members of the bin Laden family were killed after their plane avoided a microlight and then landed too far down a Hampshire runway, air accident investigators have found.

Relatives of al Qaida founder Osama bin Laden were among the four people, including the pilot, who died when a private jet crash-landed at a car auction site in Hampshire last week.

The Saudi-registered Phenom 300 jet, built in 2010, was attempting to land at Blackbushe Airport when it crashed on to dozens of cars and burst into flames.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said the plane, travelling from Milan, overtook a microlight aircraft after beginning its descent from cruise level.

It then landed two thirds of the way along the runway. This gave it 438 metres to complete the landing when it needed 616 metres, the AAIB said.

After leaving the runway, the plane collided with a one-metre high earth bank - causing part of the landing gear to detach and the plane to become briefly airborne.

It then collided with several parked cars 70 metres beyond the bank where the wings detached from the fuselage and the plane burst into flames. Coroner for North Hampshire, Andrew Bradley, who opened and adjourned the inquest into their deaths, said the bodies were "incinerated".

Mr Bradley confirmed the identities of the three members of bin Laden's family as his stepmother Raja Bashir Hashem, 75; her daughter, Sana bin Laden, 53; and Zouheir Anuar Hashem, 56. The Jordanian pilot was 58-year-old Mazen Salim Alqasim, Mr Bradley said.