Nottingham - Four men, including two fighter pilots, were killed in a mid-air collision between an RAF Tornado and a light aircraft yesterday. One of the planes crashed into the ground just 300 yards from a primary school in the tiny village of Mattersey, north Nottinghamshire.
Eyewitnesses said they saw the low-flying jet "smash through the middle" of the Cessna 152 craft, tearing it apart before bursting into a fireball. The two planes then plunged to the ground three miles apart.
A British Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed that the GR1 Tornado was on a routine training flight when the collision happened at 11.35 a.m. An RAF instructor and an Italian Air Force student pilot were both killed.