Air accident investigators were today due to recover an aircraft from the River Blackwater after a pilot was killed when his private jet crashed off Bradwell-on-Sea.

A team of investigators from the Air Accident Investigation Bureau are sending out a barge with a crane to take the aircraft to Brightlingsea. But the operation is dependent on calm conditions on the water.

Experts will then begin the task of examining the fuselage to try and establish how the tragedy happened at around 2pm on Christmas Eve.

Forty-year-old Nigel Paterson, a north London removal contracter, died when his Jet Provost nosedived into the sea. He had flown out of North Weald airfield just minutes earlier.

Lifeboat crews, coastguards and Essex Police backed by a search-and-save helicopter team launched one of the county's biggest ever air and sea rescue operations in the hope of saving the pilot.

Mr Paterson, who was married with two children, was found by an RAF Sea King on Christmas morning.

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