THE recent heavy rains and floods have been blamed for washing away most of the tributes to Flt Lt Jon Egging at the Bournemouth crash site.

Residents built a small stone cairn and placed flags, flowers and photos at the spot on the banks of the River Stour where the Red Arrows pilot died during last year’s Bournemouth Air Festival.

However, all the tributes have disappeared from the cairn, on a footpath leading from Throop Mill.

Some residents had contacted the Daily Echo in the belief it had been vandalised.

Paul Tory, the agent for the land managers Fowler Fortescue, said: “The only thing I can think is that when the river burst its banks over the last month or so the water has washed it away.”

Bournemouth council also said it believed the floods had washed the tributes away.

Rachael Lloyd, 22, from Throop, a retail assistant who walks her dogs in the area, said: “The weather and flooding was horrendous here. It would have been washed away.”