It was 14.20 local time, on Tuesday May 2, when officials at Lyon Satolas airport first discovered that a Lear 35A, on course for Nice, was preparing to make an emergency landing at their airport. During the next eleven minutes, fire crews and medical personnel readied themselves beside runway 36 left, for possible disaster. Bernard Chaffange, airport director for Lyon Satolas, explained: "We were advised by the control tower that the plane had to make an emergency landing at Lyon Satolas because of an engine failure but that was all. There was no other information.\r"In the 10 minutes which ensued before the crash, we did three things. We diverted all other traffic to a secondary runway, thus reserving the main runway for the plane in emergency. Secondly, the fire team came to the threshold of the main runway, positioning themselves very close to the point at which the aircraft was due to land. Thirdly, the doctors and nurses were rushed to this point too."\rBernard Chaffange is not unused to this situation. He says that twice, maybe three times a month, the airport plays host to this kind of landing, with one engine out of service. He said: "I didn't see the accident myself, I was in my office. I had been informed that an emergency landing was on course but to be honest, I was not really anxious because a plane like the Learjet is perfectly able to fly with only one engine. \r"I couldn't imagine it was going to crash. I was convinced that there would be no accident. You know, it's not something that happens very frequently." \rIt appears that the Lear 35A - owned by Rangers football club chairman David Murray and operated by Northern Executive Aviation - which was carrying Formula 1 driver David Coulthard, his 26-year-old fiancee Heidi Wichlinski and personal fitness trainer Andy Matthews, was managing to negotiate a safe descent when it suddenly spun out of control.\rChaffange said: "The approach seemed to be normal but at the last moment, for what reason I don't know, the plane turned left and dived on the left, crashing just beside the runway. It crashed and burned approximately 50 to 100 metres to the west of the main runway. When I was advised of the crash, I immediately went to the site.\r"The fire service was on the site within seconds so the fire was extinguished very, very quickly. It was too late for the two pilots, they had been killed in the crash, but the three passengers escaped and were apparently barely hurt at all. They walked out of the aircraft by themselves, while the firemen were fighting against the fire."\rThe two pilots, who died instantly from the impact, were British captain David Saunders, 46, and co-pilot Dan Worley, a former RAF pilot. \rDavid Saunders, a fully qualified Learjet Captain with thousands of hours flying behind him, was married with two young daughters aged 2 and 4. Dan Worley, 33, was married with a young daughter, aged 2. Mrs Worley is expecting their second child. \rDavid Antrobus, managing director of Northern Executive Aviation, said: "Our first thoughts and sympathies are with the families of the two pilots; obviously we will offer every assistance at our disposal.\r"David Saunders and Dan Worley were well respected, well liked members of what is an extremely well-knit team at NEA. "Obviously we are relieved for David Coulthard, his fiancee Heidi Wichlinski and David's physio Andy Matthews. They undoubtedly had an extremely fortunate escape."\rOnce safely on the runway, David Coulthard asked to use a mobile phone. Chaffange said: "I don't know who he called but he made a telephone call just after the crash. At this time, he seemed to be OK, he seemed to be a very strong man." The Lear 35A had left the UK's Farnborough airport at 12.46 local time. Len Rayment, ceo of TAG Farnborough airport, told EBAN: "As far as we are concerned, it was a perfectly normal departure. They weren't rushing for slots or anything silly like that. It was a totally standard procedure."\rImmediately after the crash, Lyon Satolas airport was closed for approximately 10 minutes as there were no more fire trucks available. Chaffange said: "The fire trucks were all engaged on the site of the crash, so for those 10 minutes it was not possible to land or take off. \r"But when the fire was extin-guished, we only needed one truck to control the situation, so the others came back to their normal duty."\rThe three survivors were taken to Edouard Herriot hospital, located about 20 kilometres from Lyon Satolas airport, and later discharged.\rChaffange said: "Nothing like this has ever happened before. We had a crash six years ago with a small airline turboprop, but this particular crash had no fatal victims. We had 30 people onboard and 10 or 12 suffered burn injuries. They crashed when landing, and it was found to be pilot error."\rWhile an investigation has been launched by the French ministry of transportation, a technical enquiry is also being carried out by French police.\rAlec McRitchie, director of public relations for Bombardier Aerospace in Europe, added: "More than 2,000 Learjets have been delivered over the last 40 years and of that number, more than 670 were model 35s which were built between 1974 and 1993. \r"The Lear 35 is a safe and trusted aircraft and has an excellent safety record. The overall accident rate is 0.010 per million miles flown compared to a rate of 0.018 per million miles for the corporate aircraft industry on average."\rNEA says it has never experienced any incident of this nature. The company holds an AOC, an EC Operating Licence, and says it complies with all commercial standards. Company spokesman Iain Macauley said: "Nothing has happened remotely approaching this serious in 39 years of operations. These are the first fatalities."