McRae’s paperwork ‘black hole’

It was later discovered that the 39-year-old former rallying World Champion had also been six months overdue in undergoing his annual flying competency check-up.

However, no-one at Britain’s aviation licensing authority had noticed either of these facts and McRae had fallen into an administrative “black hole” due to a lack of staff and resources at the Civil Aviation Authority.

All this came out during evidence taken at Monday’s session of the marathon Fatal Accident Inquiry at Lanark Sheriff Court into the deaths of McRae, his five-year-old son Jonathan, that child’s schoolfriend Ben Porcelli (6) and 37-year-old family friend Graeme Duncan at the McRae’s Jerviswood home on the outskirts of Lanark.

For more information on the inquiry, which will continue later this month, pick up a copy of this week’s Carluke and Lanark Gazette.