A MAN has tragically died after an aircraft crash in the hills above Greenock.

Emergency services rushed to the scene after a microlight aircraft came down yesterday in the countryside near Kilmacolm Road.

Police, fire and ambulance crews, with specialist equipment, were scrambled to the scene near Corlic Hill as reports of the crash started to come in around noon.

But the 77-year-old pilot, named locally as Mr William George Kerr, died at the scene having sustained fatal injuries.

It is understood the aircraft went down after getting into trouble at the hillside nearby to the B788 Greenock to Kilmacolm Road.

The aircraft wreckage could be seen lying in a field off of Auchenfoil Road.

A Greenock police spokesman said: “At around 11.50am on Tuesday, 2 June, police were called after a microlight plane crashed into a field near Garshangan Road, Kilmacolm. “Emergency services went to the scene.

"However a 77-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene.”

The emergency services remained on the scene after the incident as a full investigation into the crash got under way immediately.

Police, fire crews from Johnstone and ambulance teams were all in attendance.

An onlooker said: “I feared the worst when I saw the state of the aircraft.

"There was a pile of wreckage lying just at the brow of the hill, it looked awful.”

Another person told the Tele that a microlight was spotted regularly in the area where the accident happened.

Police say that a full report will be sent to the procurator fiscal following the tragedy