A SCOTTISH oil worker was among 22 men killed when the plane ferrying them back to a petro-chemical complex in northern Libya apparently ditched in the sea.

Four other Britons were known to have died, and hopes were fading last night for a sixth British worker missing after the plane crash off the coast of Libya.

The family of Mr Thomas McNeilly, 44, of Dunottar Place, Coatbridge, said they were devastated by news of his death.

His sister-in-law, Mrs Jacqueline Walsh, said the family had been called by the Foreign Office consular division about the tragedy, which they were struggling to come to terms with.

Fighting back tears, she said: ''The Foreign Office has been in touch but really we have no other details about what's happened other than what's been on the news. Our MP Tom Clarke is coming to see us tomorrow to tell us more about what has happened. We're just in a state of disbelief.''

She said the loss of Mr McNeilly, a welding engineer, was a stunning blow to the family and his wife, Maureen, was distraught. The couple were married for 17 years and have three children: Jonathan, 16, Julia, 14, and Beth, 12.

Foreign Office officials later named the other known British victims as Mr Patrick Cox from Consett, County Durham, Mr Ronald Jarred of Middlesbrough, Mr John Morton from Birkenhead on Merseyside, and Mr Roy Parfitt from Cheshire. Further details were not released.

It is feared that a total of 22 men from eight countries were killed when their Belfast-built Shorts SD-360 ditched in the Mediterranean five miles from its destination, a petro-chemical complex in northern Libya.

By last night, 17 people were known to have died with five more, including the Briton, missing. A search of the area around the crash site continued all day but, with dusk falling, there appeared little chance of finding any of the missing men alive.

The British ambassador in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, Richard Dalton, said: ''It is looking very unlikely that any more survivors will be found now.'' He said the bodies of the five Britons had been flown to Tripoli and arrangements were being made to return them to families in the UK ''as soon as possible''.

Seven more Britons were among 19 survivors plucked from the sea by local fishing boats after the crash at lunchtime on Thursday. One suffered a broken leg, but the others received only minor injuries.

British air crash investigators were last night heading to Libya to join a team of Swiss and Libyan experts seeking to discover why the twin-engined aircraft ditched five miles short of its destination, Marsa el Brega, 450 miles east of Tripoli.

Investigations are likely to centre on whether fuel problems caused a seeming simultaneous engine failure in the SD-360, which has a reputation as a particularly reliable model of plane, forcing the two Swiss-trained Libyan pilots to land it in the sea.

The flight was carrying 41 people - 38 passengers, a flight attendant, and the two pilots. All the passengers were employees of the Libyan state-run Sirte Oil Com-pany, which runs the petro-chemical works in Marsa el Brega.

None of the Britons who survived the crash have been officially named, although some have telephoned relieved relatives in Britain to let them know they were safe. Mr Stewart Bonar, a 59-year-old from Limavady, Co Londonderry, called his wife, Olive, to say he had survived and was being treated in hospital for a broken leg and other injuries.

A tearful Mrs Bonar said: ''He said he had had a lot of X-rays taken and he is very, very upset, obviously and very annoyed about his two mates who he travelled with all the time and worked with. They are both dead.''

Relatives of another survivor told how he had earlier dodged death after being caught up in the bombing of an Iraqi petrochemical plant during the Iraq-Iran war. The escape of Mr Dave Wilkinson, 47, of Hartlepool, was a ''miracle'', said brother Alan, 44, also of Hartlepool.