FOUR people died in the wreckage of a blazing light aircraft which

crashed after takeoff yesterday despite a heroic but unsuccessful rescue

attempt by the son of one of the victims.

Farmer Mr Norman Anderson, 35, saw the aircraft go down in a gully

near his Barnchalloch Farm, Stoneykirk, about five miles from Stranraer,

and ran to try to free the occupants: his 65-year-old father, Mr Norman

Anderson; a woman; and two others. He had to be pulled away by a

neighbour, as the trapped victims screamed in the flames.

Dumfries and Galloway Police said the plane had taken off in perfect

weather from a field near the Barnchalloch farmhouse around 11am. It

travelled less than a mile before crashing at the edge of the farm in an

area known locally as The Glen.

No official cause has been given for the accident, but an witness said

the plane's engine appeared to stall before it hit the ground and

exploded in flames.

A neighbouring farmer, Mr James Rankin, of Caldons Hill farm, who

witnessed the accident, said Mr Anderson Jr had watched the plane take

off and saw it get into difficulties. He ran from the shed where he was

working to the crash.

''Young Norman could hear the people in the plane screaming. He wanted

to pull them out, but it was hopeless . . . he had to be dragged away by

my son,'' Mr Rankin said.

Mr Rankin said the plane had come up from London the night before and

was heading yesterday for the island of Mull with Mr Anderson Sr, a

woman from Northern Ireland, and two other men. Mr Rankin said Mr

Anderson was not at the controls.

''As the aircraft took off, one wing hit a fence. The plane was pulled

down and the other wing ploughed into a heather banking and burst into

flames. It was a fireball,'' he said.

Another neighbour said she thought the plane's engine had cut out

before the crash. ''All I heard was the plane's engine stall and I

thought, the plane's going to crash. I ran to the fence and smash, it

went up.''

The woman said after the crash she and her husband could hear

screaming from the wreckage.

''The woman was still alive. I heard her screaming and screaming. Even

after I came back from the phone she was still screaming. Then there was

another explosion,'' she said.

Both the woman neighbour and Mr Rankin were critical of the time it

took for emergency services to reach the scene. They said it was about

20 minutes before police and fire officials arrived.

An incident room was set up at the scene, and officers from the Air

Accident Investigation Unit at Farnborough were helping police examine

the wreckage which lay on the side of the wooded gully.

Police said they would not be releasing the names of the dead until

relatives had been informed.

According to neighbours, Mr Anderson Sr, a widower, was a popular

farmer and well known throughout the area. He had been flying for 20

years on leisure and business trips around the country and used one of

his fields as a landing strip.