Police confirm identity of crash victims

The 1995 World Rally Champion was piloting the helicopter carrying his five-year-old son Johnny, his six-year-old friend Ben Porcelli and 37-year-old family friend Graeme Duncan.

The helicopter crashed shortly after 4:00pm in Jerviswood after the party were returning from a nearby village, the police said.

"It has now been confirmed that there were four people, two adults and two young children on board," the police said in a statement.

"Although a post mortem has still to take place, the four involved are believed to be Mr Colin McRae (39) of Jerviswood House and his son Johnny Gavin McRae, aged 5; Ben Porcelli (6), of Cleghorn Road, Lanark, who had been over playing with Johnny; and family friend Graeme Duncan (37), of L'Ile Degaillot, Faycelles, France.

"A full report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal."

Chief Superintendent Tim Love, Divisional Commander, South Lanarkshire Division, said: "We believe that the group were just returning from a visit to the nearby village of Quarter around 1605 hours yesterday, when it appears that the helicopter got into difficulty and crashed within the grounds of Mr McRae's family home.

"Our officers are working closely with the Air Accident Investigation Team who are presently at the scene.

"Family Liaison Officers have been appointed and are with the families to help them through this distressing and difficult time."

The cause of the crash has not yet been established, but those who knew McRae have been adamant it could not have been a pilot error.

"It was a mechanical failure on the helicopter," a close family friend told autosport.com.

"As anybody who flew with Colin knew, there was absolutely no correlation between the way he drove a rally car and the way he flew a helicopter.

"I have flown with many professional helicopter pilots, and Colin would have put them to shame. His attention to detail as a pilot was second to none."