TRIBUTES have been paid after three members of an Almondsbury family and their young friend were killed in a plane crash in Ireland.

The bodies of pilot Sharif Booz, 43, his wife Margaret, who was in her 40s, their teenage son Ayman, 16, and his pal Charlie Froud, 16, were pulled from the wreckage of their light aircraft on a remote mountain yesterday. They were travelling to a holiday retreat in Mrs Booz's hometown in County Kildare when their Piper PA-28 ran into trouble and nosedived into a mountainside.

Mr and Mrs Booz's eldest son Sammi, 19, an architecture student, was yesterday travelling home from Nottingham following news of the tragedy.

The couple's nephew Yousef, who was at the family's home in Church View yesterday, said his uncle was an experienced pilot and a "lovely person who was well known in the community".

The family had been due to return home on Thursday after travelling from Gloucestershire Airport bound for Kilrush Airfield, 200 miles away, on Saturday morning.

Yousef, 26, a doctor based in Ireland, said: "He usually calls us when he arrives there.

"We called him and we never got a call back.

"We contacted Gloucester Airport, they contacted the London Air Authority and they contacted Belfast or Dublin.

"He last contacted the London Air Authority and the plane was last seen on radar at 12.30pm.

"He couldn't land at Kilrush, possibly due to the weather, and I presume he was re-directed."

The family's neighbours expressed shock and described the Booz family as "lovely".

Magistrate Roy Rosser, 64, said: "Sharif was a very pleasant chap. Every year since the millennium we've had a street party and he brought up his barbecue. He shared the plane with another gentleman and often flew to Ireland."

Mr Rosser's wife Audrey, 65, said: "I taught both their boys and they were both very polite. They were a lovely family – life is so unpredictable, they're not here anymore and I don't believe this."

Another neighbour, Judith Tunnicliffe, 42, said: "We knew them for two years. I would describe Margaret as one of the kindest people, most neighbourly people you could meet."

Her partner Simon Swindells, 45, said: "Ayman was a fairly popular lad, he used to play football in the street with his mates and play with a remote control car. He was a bit of a maverick and had his hair coloured."

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, described Mrs Booz as a "pillar of the community" who helped with the local Cubs and Scouts.

The vicar at St Mary's Church in Almondsbury paid tribute to the Booz family.

Rev Philip Rowe said: "Sharif, Margaret and Ayman Booz were a hard-working, close family who were loyal members of the village community.

"They supported fundraising and village events.

"We are all deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family."

Ayman's close friend Charlie is believed to be from Over, near Almondsbury, but no one was in at what is believed to be his family home when the Evening Post visited last night.

It is thought Mr Booz, a property lettings manager who had at least seven years of flying experience, co-owned the Piper plane with a family friend.

It is believed the family made trips to the Irish town of Newbridge, where Mrs Booz is from, on a regular basis.

The single-engine plane was on its way from Gloucester to County Kildare on Saturday when it went missing.

It dropped below radar in County Wicklow, on the country's east coast, around lunchtime.

Following a massive search operation, the wreckage of the aircraft was discovered by rescuers yesterday in a remote region in the west of the county.

Jurgen Whyte, of the Irish Government's Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU), said the bodies had to be dug out of the plane as its nose was embedded in the ground.

Mr Whyte said: "The four bodies were dug out of the aircraft. They have been flown by helicopter to Naas Hospital.

"The priority was to get the bodies out before dark. We've now also pulled the aircraft out of the bog, about one third of it was embedded underground."

Gardai said family members arrived in Ireland from the UK yesterday and post-mortem examinations would now be carried out on the bodies at Naas General Hospital.

According to the operator of Kilrush airfield Ian Valentine, Mr Booz used the landing strip usually twice a year to visit relatives in the nearby Newbridge.

While weather conditions over Ireland were unsettled, accident investigators refused to be drawn on whether that was the cause of the crash, saying it was too early to tell.

Mr Valentine said he was not aware the plane was due to land at the strip until a relative of the pilot contacted him around 6pm on Saturday from Gloucester.

The airfield chief said he had received a text from Mr Booz earlier in the week to say he expected to come at the weekend. But Mr Valentine said he would normally receive a call from him the morning he was due to arrive, yet that did not happen on Saturday.

When the alarm was raised on Saturday night, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) checked over its radar log and discovered the plane's last known location was over the Wicklow mountains around 12.30pm.

A spokeswoman said air traffic control at Dublin Airport had monitored the plane until about 10 minutes before this, when the pilot closed his flight plan.

While a preliminary search of the remote area was carried out on last night, stormy conditions meant it was not until first light this morning that a major search could get under way.

This involved gardai from the north Wicklow town of Bray, the defence forces, coastguard and mountain rescue personnel from Dublin, Wicklow, Tipperary and Northern Ireland.

By early morning the wreckage of the aircraft was found at Corriebracks, just south of Hollywood, in the west of the county.

Paramedics and gardai were airlifted to the remote spot, followed some time later by teams from the AAIU.

Mr Whyte, chief inspector of AAIU, said the plane was being left at the scene overnight and AAIU investigators would return today.

"Obviously we'll be looking at all aspects, but we'll be looking at the weather conditions in particular, obviously because I think everyone's aware that the weather was quite bad yesterday," he said.

"We'll be interested to see the flight planning of the aircraft, the prevailing weather conditions at the time, and also we'll be examining the aircraft."

Wicklow Dail deputy Billy Timmins expressed his condolences to the families and paid tribute to the emergency services for their work.

"My sincerest sympathy goes to the family and friends of those involved in the plane crash which was discovered in the Wicklow Mountains this weekend," he said.

"It is absolutely tragic that such an incident has happened.

"It is difficult to understand why such dreadful things happen.

"My sincere condolences go to the families of those involved, during what must be an extremely difficult time.

"May they find peace in coming to terms with these extremely harrowing turn of events."