A CORONER has recorded an accidental verdict on an East Lancashire passenger killed in a Welsh air crash which also saw his son and father seriously injured.

Iain Nuttall, 37, lost his life in May 2013 when a Piper Cherokee light aircraft, being flown by his father John, plummeted to the ground at Caernarfon Airport.

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An inquest heard that the plane clipped a tree and nosedived to the ground, before flipping over.

In June, an inquiry by the Air Accident Investigation Branch concluded that ice may have affected the plane’s carburettor, causing it to lose power as it came in to land at the airfield.

And this finding was endorsed by North West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones, after a day-long hearing in Caernarfon.

Mr Pritchard-Jones said: “The main cause of the crash is the icing of the carburettor and the failure of the pilot to probably appreciate that and apply carburettor heat to remove the icing.”

The hearing was told that while the ice didn’t stop the single engine plane, it had reduced the flow of fuel. Mr Nuttall, of Wasdale Avenue, Blackburn – who was being taken from Blackpool to Caenarfon for Sunday lunch – died after receiving a serious head injury.

His father, John, from Haslingden, an experienced pilot, is also said to have been seriously hurt and Iain’s son Daniel, then aged five, had to have dozens of stitches for a facial wound.

John Nuttall told the inquest: “As I turned to face the runway the engine failed. The power just stopped, and I couldn’t get it back on.”