LONDON (AP) — Family members of the late al-Qaida leader
Osama bin Laden were among four people killed in a private jet crash in
southern England, the Saudi ambassador to Britain said.
He did not further identify the dead, but Arab
media and NBC News reported they included a sister, brother-in-law and
stepmother of Osama bin Laden. The plane's Jordanian pilot also died.
The ambassador, Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdel-Aziz, offered his condolences to the wealthy bin Laden family, which owns a major construction company in Saudi Arabia.
"The embassy will follow up on the incident and its circumstances with the concerned British authorities and work on speeding up the handover of the bodies of the victims to the kingdom for prayer and burial," the ambassador said in a statement tweeted by the embassy late Friday.
Police say a pilot and three passengers died when an executive jet crashed into a parking lot and burst into flames while trying to land at Blackbushe Airport in southern England Friday afternoon. The plane had been flying from Malpensa Airport in Milan.
No one on the ground was hurt. Police and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch launched a joint investigation.
Blackbushe Airport said the Embraer Phenom 300 jet crashed near the end of the runway while trying to land at the airfield about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of London, which is used by private planes and flying clubs.
The family is a large and wealthy one. Osama bin Laden's billionaire father Mohammed had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a sprawling construction conglomerate awarded many major building contracts in the Sunni kingdom.
Mohammed bin Laden died in a plane crash in Saudi Arabia in 1967. One of his sons, Salem, was killed when his ultralight aircraft flew into power lines in San Antonio, Texas, in 1988.
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The ambassador, Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdel-Aziz, offered his condolences to the wealthy bin Laden family, which owns a major construction company in Saudi Arabia.
"The embassy will follow up on the incident and its circumstances with the concerned British authorities and work on speeding up the handover of the bodies of the victims to the kingdom for prayer and burial," the ambassador said in a statement tweeted by the embassy late Friday.
Police say a pilot and three passengers died when an executive jet crashed into a parking lot and burst into flames while trying to land at Blackbushe Airport in southern England Friday afternoon. The plane had been flying from Malpensa Airport in Milan.
No one on the ground was hurt. Police and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch launched a joint investigation.
Blackbushe Airport said the Embraer Phenom 300 jet crashed near the end of the runway while trying to land at the airfield about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of London, which is used by private planes and flying clubs.
Andrew
Thomas, who was at a car auction sales center based at the airport,
told the BBC that "the plane nosedived into the cars and exploded on
impact." He said he saw the plane and several cars in flames.
The
official Saudi Press Agency earlier identified the plane as Saudi-owned
without mentioning the bin Ladens. It said a Saudi official would work
with British authorities in investigating the crash.
The
plane's pilot was Mazen Salem al-Dajah, a Jordanian in his late 50s.
His brother Ziad told The Associated Press that al-Dajah's family had
been told of his death by a representative of the bin Laden family's
corporation. He said al-Dajah received his pilot's license in California
about 25 years ago and had been employed by the bin Laden family.
The
bin Laden family disowned Osama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him
of his citizenship because of his militant activities. The al-Qaida
leader was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011.The family is a large and wealthy one. Osama bin Laden's billionaire father Mohammed had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a sprawling construction conglomerate awarded many major building contracts in the Sunni kingdom.
Mohammed bin Laden died in a plane crash in Saudi Arabia in 1967. One of his sons, Salem, was killed when his ultralight aircraft flew into power lines in San Antonio, Texas, in 1988.
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