Hampshire plane crash: Boy, 6, fighting for life after surviving smash which killed parents

A boy of six is fighting for life in hospital after he miraculously survived a plane crash which killed his parents.

Company director Lewis Tonkinson, aged 50, and wife Sally, 44, both died when their light aircraft smashed into woodland in atrocious weather.

Stunned firefighters found their son George alive in the back of the fuselage after discovering the bodies of his parents on Saturday afternoon.

Orphaned George was last night critically ill in hospital suffering from multiple injuries - unaware his parents have been killed.

The crash has chilling echoes to the story of Sailor Gutzler, the seven-year-old who survived a plane crash in Kentucky, which killed both of her parents and two other members of her family on Friday.

The tragedy unfolded as the family were flying back to their home in Alcester, Warkwickshire, after a trip to the Isle of Wight.

It is thought they had intended to land on an airstrip near Stratford-on-Avon. But a walker raised the alarm after finding wreckage from their blue and white plane in Blackwood Forest near Basingstoke, Hants.

Aviation experts believe pilot Mr Tonkinson may have been trying to make an emergency landing at nearby Popham airfield when he crashed into trees and somersaulted.

Son George may be the only person who knows what happened in the final seconds of the families doomed flight.

Mr Tonkinson - who celebrated his 50th birthday last week - was director of a firm called Pinnacle Marketing Communications which he launched 21 years ago.

He and Sally wed in November 2013. 

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