Gale ripped wing off doomed biplane - Cuban experts
Authorities in Cuba have said high winds ripped a wing off a small aircraft which crashed on the island, killing four Britons and 12 other people.
A preliminary investigation has shown strong winds tore off the top part of the left wing of the single-engine Antonov AN-2 biplane which crashed on Thursday, the country’s civil aviation institute said last night.
The crash near the city of Santa Clara killed four Britons - newlyweds Paul Fuller, 38, and his wife Lorellei, 33, from Kent, and Shaun Lawrence, 36, and his wife Angela, 38, from Doncaster.
The Fullers were on their honeymoon after marrying on holiday, with the Lawrences, who they befriended on the trip, acting as witnesses at the wedding.
Mr Fuller’s father Peter yesterday told how the couple’s life had been dogged by tragedy.
Lorellei’s four-year-old daughter died of the rare cancer neuroblastoma in April last year.
And Paul’s brother John, 40, was recently left disabled by a virus.
Speaking yesterday at the detached house in Minster, Kent, that Paul and Lorellei bought four months ago to make their family home, Peter Fuller said: ‘‘They were just so happy together and had planned to have kids following Sophie’s death.
‘‘Why was this allowed to happen? I want to know who was to blame for this. We are utterly devastated. My wife is busted up.’’
Lorellei leaves two other children, Sam, 10, and Ben, eight, from her first marriage.
Her brother, Mike Wake, 37, from The Wirral, a technical director with a light and sound company, said he hoped to fly to Cuba to collect the bodies of his sister and brother-in-law.
Neighbours of Shaun and Angela Lawrence were still trying to come to terms with the news of their deaths on what was believed to be a ‘‘last-minute holiday’’.
One woman, who lives opposite the Lawrence’s semi-detached home in Avoca Avenue, Doncaster, said the couple had been ‘‘all excited’’ when they found a last-minute deal for a trip to Cuba.
Mr Lawrence, 36, who worked as a technician at Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop, and his wife, 38, a radiographer at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, were said to be keen travellers who ‘‘worked hard and played hard’’.
The neighbour, who did not wish to be named, added: ‘‘It was a last-minute booking. It was all in a rush and they were all excited.’’
The four Britons were travelling from Cienfuegos on the country’s southern coast to Cayo Coco in the north with two Germans, a group of six Canadians which included two children, and four Cubans, understood to be the pilot, crew and tour leader.
