Local friends and golfers mourn death of pilots

Two of the four people tragically killed in Tuesday's Hatfield train accident were pilots about to start a routine flight to Jersey and then on to Majorca the following day. Thirty-seven year-old New Zealander Robert Alcorn and his Croydon-born boss 46-year-old Steve Arthur were due to have flown a team of golfers from Jersey to Palma on Wednesday for an annual golfing event organised by the Jersey-based business tycoon Joe Moore, who bought one of the most beautiful properties on Majorca in Santa Ponsa three years ago. “It's all extremely sad and our thoughts and sympathy go out to both of the pilot's families,” a local friend and golfing partner of Moore said yesterday. It was revealed yesterday that Steve Arthur had been down to London to see his wife, children and mother who had flown in from the United States for a few days before heading to Leeds with his colleague, Alcorn, to pick up the Leeds-based private jet for the routine flight to Jersey with Joe Moore's daughter and to pick up the Palma bound golfers. Both of the pilots were travelling in a First Class carriage, an area of the train which escaped undamaged, but as the pilots had a busy afternoon ahead, at 12.25 they apparently decided to move up to the restaurant carriage for something to eat. Just moments later disaster struck and all four of the passengers who were killed were caught in the dining car when the London-Leeds lunchtime train came off the rails at 115mph on a bend injuring a further 35 people. One local golfer said yesterday that the team decided to carry on with their golf trip to Majorca because everything had been booked and replacement pilots were found. “But there will not be the usual fun and laughter this year, it was a tragic disaster that has affected us all.”