The last transmission by a pilot killed in a light aircraft crash last month contained the words “going to end up in a field,” investigators have established.

A crowd of more than 15,000 observed a minute’s silence at the Foynes Air Show at 1pm yesterday in memory of Howard Cox, a pilot who was due to take part in the show but died in a plane crash on Saturday night.

A friend of the pilot who was killed in an air crash on Saturday evening and who witnessed the aftermath said yesterday no one could have survived the impact, which occurred just minutes after take-off.