Daily Mail - 28.08.2019

Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Page 

Horror in the Alps

Composer, his

Proms star wife

and their baby

killed in light

aircraft crash

A COMPOSER and his Proms

musician wife died alongside their

baby in a plane crash in the Alps,

their family said yesterday.

Jonathan Goldstein, 50, was in the

tiny four-seater light aircraft with his

wife Hannah, 36, and their daughter

Saskia, seven months.

The British family was on a holiday flight

to Italy on Sunday when it went down in a

6,100ft mountain pass in Switzerland.

The cause is not yet known but a hiker

reportedly saw flames coming from the

Piper PA-28 Arrow before the crash.

A family spokesman said: ‘We are all

devastated by the news of Jonathan,

Hannah and Saskia’s deaths. We loved

them all so very much.

‘They were so happy together and we will

miss them terribly.’

Mr Goldstein, a stage and screen com-

poser, worked on several Hollywood films

By Vanessa Allen

Newborn: Mrs Goldstein with Saskia

were keen flyers. Mr Goldstein

was an experienced pilot who

passed his solo cross-country fly-

ing examination in 2011 and

bought the Piper Arrow in 2015.

It was not known if he or his wife

was at the controls at the time of

the crash. They had flown in the

plane from London on Saturday

morning and landed in France

before making a second stop in

Lausanne, Switzerland, that night.

On Sunday morning they took

off safely and were due to fly to

Perugia in Umbria but disaster

struck 90 minutes into the flight.

A hiker in the Simplon Pass, a

route through the mountains

between Switzerland and Italy,

said he saw burning metal falling

from the sky and then heard two

huge bangs above him. Christian

Merz, 63, from Dorneck, Switzer-

land, told local media how he saw

two people rush towards the

blazing wreckage but they could

not reach it because of the

intensity of the flames. The bodies

have been recovered and the

plane’s remnants have been

removed for examination.

Mr and Mrs Goldstein lived in a

£1.2million flat near Tower Bridge

in central London and were both

successful musicians. Mr

Goldstein was the founder and

creative director of Goldstein

Music Group, a music production

agency in London.

His wife was an acclaimed saxo-

phonist who performed using her

maiden name Marcinowicz with

orchestras including the London

Symphony, Royal Philharmonic

and BBC Concert Orchestra.

She studied at the Royal Acad-

emy of Music before performing as

a soloist at the Proms and also at

the Royal Festival Hall and the

Barbican. The couple were work-

ing on an album together.

Flautist Gareth McLearnon paid

tribute on Facebook: ‘Such a

horrible shock. Knew them both.

Lovely, friendly, joyful, talented

people – and with such a gorgeous

little one. Just horrific.’

A neighbour told Mirror Online:

‘Hannah had given me her par-

ents’ numbers for emergencies so

I called her dad. He said there was

a tragic accident. I still can’t

believe it, I couldn’t sleep.’

The UK Air Accident Investiga-

tion Branch has offered to assist an

inquiry by the Swiss authorities.

Crash site: Smoke drifts up from the burning wreck in the Swiss mountain pass

Keen flyers: Hannah and Jonathan Goldstein smile in the cockpit of their Piper Arrow in a photo posted on Facebook

including Martin Scorsese’s 1991 thriller

Cape Fear. He was nominated for an Ivor

Novello award in 2007 for his score to the

BBC film Primo.

The couple, who were married in 2016,

degrees Celsius – bringing a much-needed

deluge to parched gardens.

The storms prompted the Meteorologi-

cal Office to issue a warning covering the

northern Home Counties, East Midlands,

Yorkshire and North East England. Where

the storms hit, as much as two inches of

rain was expected in just three hours.

Forecasters said the volume of rain could

lead to flash flooding, while lightning also

risked damaging homes, businesses and

power supplies.

The August Bank Holiday weekend was

the hottest ever – with 33.3C (91.9F)

recorded on Sunday and 33.2C (91.7F) on

Monday, both at Heathrow airport.

Beachgoers at Criccieth, North Wales,

were urged to wear footwear in the sea

yesterday after a number of tourists were

stung by weever fish. The creatures have

venomous spines and often bury them-

selves in sandy areas of shallow water.

The RNLI said: ‘The weever fish are quite

prolific at the moment and a few people,

mainly children, are getting stung.’

Put away the sun cream and get set for a soaking

FOR those of us who struggled to cope

with the Bank Holiday heatwave, last night

brought a welcome breath of fresher air.

After three days of scorching tempera-

tures, thundery downpours swept in

from the west.

Hours after temperatures had reached

a sizzling high of 33.4C (92.1F) at Heathrow

airport, they plunged by as much as ten

By Richard Marsden

FRANCEFRANCE

SWITZERLANDSWITZERLAND

Saturday am: Depart

England from an

airport near London

Overnight in

Lausanne,

Switzerland

Stop at

Troyes,

France

Sunday: Depart for

Italy. The Piper plane

crashes in Swiss Alps

ITALYITALY

Simplon

Pass

Simplon

Pass

THE DOOMED FLIGHT