Accessibility links

Breaking News

Saudi Official: Bin Ladens Killed in UK Plane Crash


Members of emergency services arrive at the scene of a plane crash, which included members of Osama Bin Laden's family, at a car park next to Blackbushe Airport, in Hampshire, August 1, 2015.
Members of emergency services arrive at the scene of a plane crash, which included members of Osama Bin Laden's family, at a car park next to Blackbushe Airport, in Hampshire, August 1, 2015.

Family members of the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden were among four people killed Friday in a private jet crash near London, a Saudi ambassador said.

British and Saudi media reports said three passengers were relatives of the late al-Qaida leader. The pilot also died in the crash.

The Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom used the embassy's official Twitter account to offer condolences to the bin Laden family without confirming their identities.

"The embassy will follow up on the incident and its circumstances with the concerned British authorities and work on speeding up the handover of the bodies of the victims to the kingdom for prayer and burial," said Ambassador Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdel-Aziz in a statement tweeted by the embassy late Friday.

Crashed upon landing

Police said the executive jet crashed into a parking lot near a car auction site and burst into flames while trying to land at Blackbushe Airport, 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of London.

The plane was enroute from Malpensa Airport in Milan.

No one on the ground was hurt. Police and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch launched a joint investigation.

Osama bin Laden's billionaire father, Mohammed, was a construction industry magnate and his numerous descendants constitute a prominent family with wide-ranging business interests.

He had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a sprawling construction conglomerate that was awarded many major building contracts in the Sunni kingdom.

Mohammed bin Laden himself died in a plane crash in Saudi Arabia in 1967.

His son Osama, who claimed responsibility for the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, was shot dead by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG