{"id":416267,"date":"2026-02-09T14:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416267\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:13:16","slug":"police-issue-major-update-amid-investigations-into-fatal-plane-crash-in-rochdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416267\/","title":{"rendered":"Police issue major update amid investigations into fatal plane crash in Rochdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two men were killed when the private plane plummeted to the ground\"Two<\/p>\n

Two men were killed when the private plane plummeted to the ground(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Police have issued a major update amid ongoing investigations into a fatal plane crash in Rochdale<\/a> last week. Emergency services were sent out to farmland near Blackstone Edge, Littleborough<\/a>, shortly after 11am on February 3 to reports of a light aircraft crash.<\/p>\n

The bodies of two men were recovered<\/a>, with both pronounced dead at the scene. One of the men has since been identified as ‘deeply loving father and devoted husband’ Arian Abbasi.<\/a> The 36-year-old was among the two killed in the incident and was days away from starting ‘an exciting new chapter’ in his life as a commercial airline pilot, his family said.<\/p>\n

The private Cirrus SR20 light aircraft had crashed around 40 minutes after taking off from Birmingham. Greater Manchester Police<\/a> are continuing with their enquiries, along with specialist investigators from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB).<\/p>\n

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It’s understood that ‘all lines of enquiry remain open’ into the cause of the fatal crash. It’s thought that the deployment of a parachute which later became stuck to a nearby pylon, is also forming part of the probe.<\/p>\n

A large scene remained in place for a number of days, with police issuing an urgent ‘do not touch’ warning<\/a> over a missing part of the plane that posed a serious risk if touched by members of the public.<\/p>\n

Officers revealed they were searching for part of the parachute system which contains propellant.<\/a> Members of the public were urged to contact police immediately if they found the small, 30cm device.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The device has been found(Image: GMP)<\/p>\n

In an update, the force confirmed that the device had been found over the weekend. A member of the public had reported finding the parachute device on Saturday (February 7) and informed the police.<\/p>\n

A statement said: “Following an appeal earlier this week regarding the aircraft crash in Littleborough on Tuesday 3 February, officers have found and safely retrieved the missing part of the parachute system. We\u2019d like to thank everyone who contacted the police and helped in the search for this item.<\/p>\n

“It was located in the evening on Saturday 7 February by a member of the public and we\u2019d particular like to thank them for their support during this investigation.”<\/p>\n

The aircraft involved, registered G-GXVV, was owned by Daedalus Aviation (Services) Ltd – a Birmingham-based company offering pilot training experiences. FlightRadar24 data shows the aircraft left Birmingham Airport before heading north. The final signal was sent around 40 minutes later near Marsden, West Yorkshire.<\/p>\n

Witnesses are being asked to come forward to GMP. Details can be passed on by calling 101 or using Live Chat on GMP’s website<\/a>, quoting log number 1056 of February 3, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men were killed when the private plane plummeted to the ground Two men were killed when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,74625,50,2437,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-416267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-littleborough","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rochdale","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}