An inquest into the death of Muhammad Naviede recorded a narrative verdict after a coroner ruled out suicide
Muhammad Naviede
The wreckage of the Piper PA-38 Tomahawk in which Mr. Naviede died.
The cause of an airplane crash which killed a convicted fraudster who had been receiving death threats may never fully be explained, an inquest has heard.
Muhammad Naviede, 60, died in August 2014 when his leased Piper PA-38 Tomahawk aircraft span into a field moments after he sent a text message saying: "I'm in a plane out of control and it's going down."
Investigators found the aircraft did not enter its fatal spin until two minutes after the message was sent. Mr Naviede had also told members of his family and a solicitor that he had received death threats in the weeks before the crash at Padbury, Bucks.
But after hearing from more than 20 witnesses, Richard Hulett, the Buckinghamshire Coroner, told a jury he was not satisfied there was sufficient evidence to consider suicide as a possible verdict.
Instead the jury recorded a narrative verdict which said that the evidence did not sufficiently prove exactly why the aircraft entered its fatal spin.
Mr. Naviede was an experienced pilot who should have been able to regain control of the aircraft when it went into the spin near the village of Padbury.
An Air Accident Investigation Branch report said the text message he had sent was “unusual” because the aircraft continued in level flight for more than two minutes after it was sent.
The text was sent to Mr Naviede's brother Pervaiz, whom he had tried to call from his mobile phone moments earlier.
The message required him to write 148 characters within 25 seconds, something the AAIB said "would require considerable dexterity, especially in an aircraft that may have been out of control”.
At an earlier hearing Bob Moxon Browne QC, representing one of Mr Naviede's life insurers, said jurors should be given a direction to consider unlawful killing in the case.
Emails sent by Mr. Naviede to those close to him showed reference to the threats, he said, although there were no direct examples of the threats themselves.
Mr. Moxon Browne said at the time: "If someone says someone threatened you and in two weeks you are dead, you'd want to put that to the jury."
But the jury was not invited to consider such a verdict.
Jim Morris, a specialist aviation lawyer at Irwin Mitchell and former RAF pilot, who is representing the family, said: “Unfortunately, the Piper PA-38 Tomahawk that he was flying was not required to be fitted with a Flight Data Recorder (FDR) or a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) which made the task for the AAIB to determine the causes difficult, if not impossible.
“It is clear from the contents of the AAIB report and the evidence heard at the inquest that there are a number of realistic possibilities which could explain the chain of events which, amongst other things, included a possible loss of engine power due to carburettor icing.
“Unfortunately, we will never know exactly what happened in this tragic accident but the inquest has given Mr Naviede’s family some element of closure and has reinforced their view that the accident was caused by Mr Naviede’s loss of control of the aircraft – possibly as a result of a loss of engine power."
Mr. Naviede, who once had a personal fortune estimated at £117 million, was the brother of the former Government race advisor Nighat Awan, who once entertained Cherie Blair at her home in Cheshire.
He was the former head of the trade finance company Arrows, which collapsed owing more than £100 million to overseas banks and other creditors in 1991.
In 1995, a jury at the Old Bailey convicted him of seven charges of fraudulent trading, obtaining property and services by deception and making false statements to obtain bank facilities. He was jailed for nine years.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
14 CFR Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
Accident occurred Wednesday, August 20, 2014 in Benthill Farm, Buckingham, UK, United Kingdom
Aircraft: PIPER PA-38-112, registration:
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
The foreign authority was the source of this information.
On August 20, 2014, about 2000 hours universal coordinated time, a Piper PA-38-112, United Kingdom registration G-BNDE, impacted terrain near Benthill Farm, Buckingham, United Kingdom. The pilot was fatally injured. The flight itinerary is under investigation and has not been determined at this time.
The accident investigation is under the jurisdiction and control of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). This report is for informational purposes only, and contains only information released by or obtained from the government of the United Kingdom.
Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Air Accidents Investigation Branch
Farnborough House
Berkshire Copse Road
Aldershot, Hampshire
GU11 2HH, United Kingdom
Tel: +44(0) 1252 510300
Website: http://www.aaib.gov.uk
Email: enquiries@aaib.gov.uk
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