A ‘LOVELY’ man who died in a plane crash in North Dorset was making a charity flight to raise money for his village church.

Hugh Wilson died when his single engine plane crashed after witnesses heard its engine start spluttering.

The 63-year-old was flying a passenger who had paid £50 towards refurbishment work.

Mr Wilson, who learned to fly in the RAF university squadron at Leeds, came down in a field 200 yards from Stalbridge Road, just north of Stourton Caundle, near Sturminster Newton.

“I waved to him when he went overhead before it happened,” said friend and pub landlord Doug Richards from his home village, Hindon, near Salisbury.

“He would do trips around the village for £50. He would fund the costs himself.”

Police said the plane made a mayday call at 3.03pm on Saturday then crashed two minutes later.

Mr Wilson was pronounced dead at the scene and his passenger, a 25-year-old woman from the same village, was taken to Dorchester County Hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.

Mr Richards said: “I believe she has crushed or cracked vertebrae.”

A Stourton Caundle resident said he believed the plane hit overhead telephone lines before crashing.

Another resident Colin Harris said: “A few people heard the engine spluttering.”

The Air Accident Investiga-tion Branch is investigating.

Mr Wilson was a director in aircraft brokers Jet Finders Limited and had sold and demonstrated planes all around the world.

Last year he became chairman of the friends group for Hindon parish church.

The membership secretary of The Friends, who asked not to be named, said: “Because he was a pilot he offered this as a way of getting more funds. It was for things like central heating, the stone work, toilets. He was friendly man, cheerful and well liked.”

Hindon’s population is only 500 and the accident has hit the village hard.

Mr Richards said: “He was just such a lovely, gentle man. We are all horrified.

“We were together for the day on Thursday, just going round the antique shops.

“He was totally involved in village life. I went down to the cottage where he lived – it was absolutely shattering.”