Was death-crash pilot on drugs?

A PILOT killed when his light aircraft crashed on the moors above Greenfield may have been under the influence of an illegal drug, an accident report has revealed.

The body of father-of-two Niall Gover (41) was found strapped inside the wreckage of his CTSW microlight by a teenage shepherd on October 8, last year.

Christopher Crowther (18) was herding sheep above Uppermill Farm when he spotted the crashed plane and raised the alarm. There was nothing he could do for the pilot.

Post-mortem tests found the presence of THC-COOH — a chemical derived from the active ingredient of cannabis — in Mr Gover’s blood.

The report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said it did not necessarily reflect consumption in the 24 hours before the accident.

But it added: “Without evidence to the contrary, the possibility remains that the pilot was under the influence of the drug at the time of the accident.

“His judgement may have been sufficiently impaired for this to have been a factor in the accident.”

Mr Gover, from Stockport, was flying from Barton aerodrome in Manchester to Shacklewell Lodge — a small private airstrip near RAF Cottesmore at Oakham in Rutland.

The accident report said that his aircraft descended rapidly and crashed on Saddleworth Moor “probably as a result of a loss of control following an inadvertent entry into cloud.”

Christopher was on the remote moorland, around half-a-mile from the A635 Isle of Skye Road to Holmfirth, with his brother James (20). Conditions were described as very foggy at the time. Christopher described how the aircraft was in bits and seemed to have nose-dived and cartwheeled about 100 yards.

Mr Gover owned Orchards Day Nursery in Heaton Moor with his partner Sharon Mills. He had two young children. He had served in the Army’s light anti-aircraft regiment from 1994 to 1998 and was a well-known pilot at Barton where he had been making regular flights for five years.