The partner of the pilot killed in the Vauxhall helicopter horror crash said today he would have done everything he could to “save the lives of others”.
Pete Barnes died when the aircraft hit a crane and crashed in a ball of flames during the morning rush hour yesterday.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Rebecca Dixon — Mr Barnes’s long-term partner and the mother of his two children — said the hero’s death had robbed the family of a “remarkable man” and left her feeling “numb”.
Police said it was “miraculous” that there were no other fatalities when the helicopter smashed into Wandsworth Road, one of London’s busiest routes, just yards from a main railway line and a petrol station as commuters headed to work at about 8am.
Ms Dixon, 38, speaking at the family home near Mortimer, Berkshire, said the family has no doubt that Mr Barnes would have been trying to prevent the loss of life as he wrestled with the stricken helicopter. She said: “Obviously he would have been frantic and the lives of others would have been at the forefront of his mind.
“It sums up the man. I find it very comforting and so do the children.” Mr Barnes, 50, lived with Ms Dixon, their daughter, Alexandra, 12, and their son Freddie, who is eight today.
He had clocked up 10,000 hours of flying as an “aerial chauffeur”, ferrying celebrities, sports stars and world leaders around Europe. He had worked as a pilot for the police and air ambulance services and had been praised for his “courage and skill” during the dramatic rescue of a motorist from a flooded ford.
He has been pictured with stars such as Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton and Pierce Brosnan, who played James Bond in Die Another Day — one of the films on which Mr Barnes worked.
The pilot was flying alone from Redhill Aerodrome in Surrey to Elstree, Hertfordshire, to pick up a client when the crash occurred. Ms Dixon said in paying tribute to her partner that he had a “real zest for life, a real twinkle in his eye”.
She added: “He was always smiling and making other people feel happy, valued and important.
“He had his own special language of catch phrases like ‘best of British’, ‘top banana’, ‘old bean’ and ‘top bloke’.
“He was very enthusiastic. He put a great smile on anyone’s face. He just brightened up everyone’s day. He was quite a remarkable man.
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“Like anyone you are just numb and you just get through it each day at a time. It is a big shock. You just feel like you have been robbed of a very special person.”
When asked how their children were coping, she said: “They are remarkable, they are lovely.”
