Norwich couple die in Malawi air crash

A Norwich couple have been named today as two of the five British tourists killed when their sightseeing plane crashed in Malawi.

Six people - including the Canadian pilot - were killed when the Cessna plane came down as it travelled from the capital Lilongwe to the north of the African country at the weekend.

Dawn Rollins, 45, and husband Colin Smith, 45, were today named among the dead.

Ms Rollins worked as a senior manager at the Norwich office of chartered accountants Lovewell Blake.

Ms Rollins and Mr Smith were married and lived together in Norwich, the firm said this afternoon.

Simon Watson, partner of Lovewell Blake, said the couple had no children.

Mr Watson said colleagues had been left shocked at the death of Ms Rollins, who had been at the company for 16 years.

Ms Rollins specialised in agricultural accountancy and was well known throughout the farming community in Norfolk.

“Staff and friends are absolutely devastated,” said Mr Watson today. “Dawn was very well liked by her staff and clients and fellow professionals.

“Dawn very much loved life. She loved to go on adventurous holidays, cycling in Africa - she was very keen on the outdoors.”

It is believed the tourists were part of a wider group of keen cyclists and squash players on holiday together.”

The plane came down in a river valley between 2pm and 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon, according to Shadreck Chibinga, duty air traffic controller at Lilongwe International Airport.

It had set off for a thirty minute sightseeing tour of the Rumphi district of northern Malawi but never arrived at its destination, prompting a search and rescue mission.

An investigation was immediately launched into the incident, which is believed to have happened in bad weather.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the families of the five dead were being kept up to date with the investigation into the cause of the crash.

Also named was sales director Nigel Clout, 53, a father of two daughters in their 20s, from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire; Daniel Turnberg, aged 37 from north London, and David Murrell, 45.

The five British tourists were thought to have been part of a wider group of keen cyclists and squash players on holiday together.

There was no sign of a fault with the plane before it took off and the pilot had flown it many times before, often to take tourists on sightseeing tours inside and outside Malawi, Mr Chibinga added.

The tourists had been staying at a lodge on the Nyika Plateau. The Nyika Safari Company, which offers access to the Nyika National Park and Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve in the remote north of the country, is understood to have been operating the plane.

The company apparently has its own Cessna 206 which seats four to five passengers and offers charter flights to and from the two reserves to any other destination in Malawi.