Bodies of ex-military fighter pilot and son recovered as plane crashes after being spotted doing air acrobatics

The bodies of a former fighter pilot and his son have been recovered from the sea after their plane crashed off the coast of Majorca.

A two-seat Team Rocket F-4 Raider sport plane was seen crashing into the sea near the Spanish town of Soller after 8.00pm yesterday (2 August) after locals had spotted it pulling off 'daring but legal' moves in the sky.

On board the plane was a 60-year-old man believed to be a former US military fighter pilot who had 'extensive experience' flight F-14 and F-18 jets, and his 13-year-old son.

Police had been searching the seas throughout the morning, with diving units looking in an area about 100 metres from the Majorcan coast near the Soller lighthouse.

The aircraft had set off from Binissalem Aerodrome at around 6.00pm yesterday evening before it crashed into the sea.

Officials announced they had recovered two bodies, thought to be a 60-year-old man and his 13-year-old son (Solarpix.com)

The emergency services said they'd managed to locate the site of the crash and had a witness to the incident but yesterday evening they did not know exactly how many people were involved in the tragedy.

Now officials have confirmed that the bodies of a man and boy were recovered from the site of the plane crash.

A spokesperson for the Civil Guard in Majorca said at 2.00pm local time: "Around 1.00pm Civil Guard diving specialists from the elite GEAS unit mobilised as part of the emergency response involving our force, coastguards, the Navy and Air Force, recovered the bodies of the pilot and his son who was with him in the plane.

"The bodies have been taken to Soller Port."

Neither of the people involved in the crash have been officially named, though the official spokesperson did say the bodies belonged to the pilot and his son.

The plane crashed just off the coast of Majorca, around 100 metres away from the port town of Soller (Solarpix.com)

The plane is a two-seater aircraft so it is unlikely that there were any other passengers on board besides those whose bodies have already been recovered.

This tragic crash follows an alarming incident last month (13 July) at Southend Airport where a plane crashed moments after take-off, resulting in the airport being temporarily closed.

In that incident the plane, a Beech B200 Super King Air which had been set to travel Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands 'violently' crashed shortly after it took to the skies.

Four people were killed in that crash after the aircraft struck the ground 'head first' and burst into flames, with witnesses saying they saw the plane bank sharply to the left as it took off.

Additional words by Gerard Couzens.