Martin Bromage with his microlight.
A British microlight pilot who was due to fly from the UK to Australia to raise money for charity has died in a tragic accident just hours into his epic journey.
Martin Bromage from Gloucestershire was hoping to raise £150,000 for Help For Heroes, a British based charity supporting service personnel injured in current conflicts. His sole journey of 11,000 miles should have taken him around six weeks, visiting a total of 18 countries.
He set off from Gloucestershire Airport on Monday morning on the first leg of his journey. He was due to land on the French coast later that afternoon but heavy fog prevented him from doing so. He was heading back to the UK when he lost touch with his team.
The search for him was hampered by the bad weather which prevented helicopters from scouring the sea for any sign of him. A French patrol boat eventually found his body later on that night. Teams are still searching for signs of the wreckage to establish a cause of the accident.
On his website FlytoAus Martin Bromage made it clear that he knew of the risks his journey would present him: “The challenges will be many and varied including some enormous open water crossings over shark infested seas, extreme weather conditions and overflying some of the most hostile terrain in the world.” Tragically the site also states: “The weather can often be difficult at this time of year but an early departure is essential to avoid worse conditions that may prevail en-route later in the year.”
Martin Bromage was an experienced microlight pilot who had already flown around the British Isles four times in his microlight. However French pilots have expressed surprise that anyone would have attempted to cross the channel in the bad weather that saw most other light aircraft in France grounded.
The search will go on for his microlight but Lieutenant Christelle Haar of the Channel Naval Prefecture said: “The circumstances of the accident will be difficult to establish.”
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