A UK court has ruled that the deaths of three members of Osama Bin Laden’s family were “accidental” after they crashed in Hampshire, England on 31 July 2015.
The bodies of Bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Zuhair Hashim, half-sister, Sana Mohammed Bin Laden, and her mother Raja Bashir Hashim, were all “incinerated” when the pilot, Mazen Al-Aqeel Da’jah, overshot the runway causing the plane to burst into flames.
However, according to experts, the plane crash was deemed “highly suspicious” at the time, with reports suggesting that the plane had to dodge a mysterious plane tailing it nearby.
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BBC News reports:
The family had been travelling from Milan, Italy, having attended a wedding in Lake Como.
Sana’s brother Saad Bin Laden told the court his last communication was a picture of all three of them sent that morning via WhatsApp.
A report previously published by the Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) said emergency warnings prior to landing may have “saturated the pilot’s mental capacity”.
The report added the aircraft, a Saudi-registered Phenom 300, landed too far down the runway because it was travelling 40 per cent faster than the recommended speed.
AAIB inspector Afandi Darlington told the inquest the Bin Laden family were found close to the plane door. The investigation didn’t identify a technical cause for the accident.
‘Horrendous noise’
A jury in Basingstoke heard evidence from the accident, including an eyewitness account.
John Goodey, who was working at a car auction site next to the airfield, said: “It flew over the fence, it was bouncing on all the roofs of the cars. The noise was horrendous.”
He said he could see wires sparking off the back of the aircraft before it exploded.
Concluding, Mr Bradley said: “Blackbushe is not an all-singing, all-dancing airport and instructions from the control tower are not what you would get from Heathrow and Jeddah.
“He was approaching too fast, touching down at the wrong point, he’s making a decision to continue with his landing until it’s too late.”
In a statement, the Bin Laden family said they were “devastated by this great loss, but nonetheless accept it was God’s will to lose them”.
“We accept the findings of the inquest and we would like to thank our friends and family for their continued support throughout this difficult time.”
Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US and is believed to have had more than 50 brothers and sisters and many stepmothers.
The Bin Laden family disowned Osama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his militant activities. He was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.
