An off-duty RAF officer died yesterday when the light aircraft he was flying crashed in a field near Ardglass, Co Down.
The officer, who had not been named last night, was a flight lieutenant navigator based at RAF Aldergrove outside Belfast.
The emergency services were called out after the two-seater Cessna 150 got into difficulties above the village.
The pilot, single and in his 30s, is thought to have died instantly. He was on his own in the aircraft, on a recreational flight.