A FATHER told his young son to "brace" moments before the light aircraft he was flying plummeted into trees, killing both himself and his wife, an inquest heard.

Lewis Tonkinson, 50, and Sally Tonkinson, 44, were returning from the Isle of Wight with their six-year-old son when the aircraft they were travelling in came down in woodland near Popham Airfield, Hampshire, on Saturday January 3, 2015.

The couple were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, while their son George was treated at Southampton General Hospital for life-threatening injuries.

Nina Cooper, a family friend of Mr Tonkinson who has a son the same age as George, was the last person to see the family alive as she drove them to Bembridge airfield and filmed their Pioneer 400 aircraft take off.

The families had enjoyed breakfast together that morning, and the Tonkinsons, from Alcester in Warwickshire, had discussed flying back to Bidford airfield on the Saturday because George had a birthday party to attend the following day, Mrs Cooper said.

She said: "I recall Lewis was on his phone quite a bit and constantly checking the weather on his iPad.

"It seemed that it was only on the Isle of Wight that it was overcast."

Mr Tonkinson was "intelligent, confident, reliable" but "not a chancer or someone who would take risks to harm his family", she told the inquest at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Scott Wilson, inspector at the Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB), and a professional pilot for more than 40 years, said the aircraft had been travelling at about 70 knots around 300ft above the airfield - a low-level approach to avoid the cloud 100ft above.

While visibility was "acceptable" at Bembridge, weather deteriorated as the plane moved north inland and he said he suspected Mr Tonkinson "was having to work very hard to know where he was and so to keep clear of cloud".

The challenging conditions, combined with a fault in the turbo control unit of the engine which was caused by a chafed wire, were likely to have caused the pilot to attempt to land the aircraft.

The sole survivor of the crash, the couple's six-year-old son, said his father had ordered him to adopt the brace position "which told me the pilot was aware that they were in difficulties and were going to crash", said Mr Wilson.

He said: "I suspect he was debating approaching Popham.

"The workload is pretty high in the cockpit when you are trying to manoeuvre in these difficult conditions.

"The aircraft on that day was undoubtedly lower than normal - quite possibly lower than any circuit Mr Tonkinson had flown before.

"The culmination of this I believe is the pilot was aiming to be flying into this runway and then realised he was lower than he wanted to be at that point, and added power.

"It would appear from the evidence that he had too much power on given the problem with the turbo charger." The existing defect resulted in a "catastrophic engine failure" when the pilot applied full throttle, sending the plane plummeting toward the ground, the inquest was told.

Nine jury members took less than half an hour to return a narrative verdict, as directed by coroner for North East Hampshire, Andrew Bradley.

Reading out the verdict, he said Mr Tonkinson had been "flying his plane from Bembridge in the Isle of Wight to Bidford airfield near Evesham.

"He encountered poor weather conditions and a technical problem with the aircraft engine.

"In the course of attempts to land at Popham airfield in Hampshire, the engine seized and lost power, then collided with trees and crashed into the ground."

The couple sustained injuries from which they died at the scene, he said.