The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has been trying to find out what caused a Challenger 604 to crash on take-off at Birmingham International Airport, killing two passengers and three crew. The aircraft was en route to Bangor, Maine, had been in service since autumn 1999 and was being operated by US charterer Epps Aviation on behalf of the agricultural equipment manufacturer, AGCO.

Eyewitnesses to the accident, which happened at the beginning of January, said the aircraft rolled over to the left just as it took off. A muffled explosion was heard and black smoke rose to over a hundred feet.

Bombardier spokesman Leo Knaapen told EBAN: “It’s a very tragic accident. All our thoughts are

with the families and friends of those who died.

Asked about the safety record of the 604, Knaapen said: “A Challenger 604 has never been involved in a fatal accident before. Right now, we have 225 Challenger 604s that have been delivered and the aircraft has done very well since first delivery in January 1996.

“Our flying hours are approaching 300,000 and we have about 150,000 landings and take-offs.

“I’m sure the AAIB will take whatever time it needs to do a thorough investigation – they’re well known throughout the world to be extremely thorough.”

Epps Aviation’s Rebecca Lorber said: “It’s a tremendous loss for us, as it is for AGCO. We had three pilots onboard, one of whom was on the trip for training purposes.

“We’ve had a relationship with AGCO for well over 10 years, whereby they’d make regular business trips to England and other worldwide destinations by means of our aircraft.”

After the accident, Birmingham International – which handles somewhere in the region of 20,000 passengers a day – was closed for 48 hours while incoming flights were diverted to neighbouring airports.

Since its inception 36 years ago, Epps Aviation has only had one other fatal accident – in 1990, one of

the company’s aircraft was hit by another aircraft which had been cleared to land.