A British pilot drowned after saving the lives of nine passengers by ditching his plane into the sea when one of his engines failed.

Robert Mansell, 32, was hailed as a hero after carrying out a forced landing of a light aircraft in the Caribbean between the islands of Curaçao and Bonaire. Last night it emerged that his final words to air traffic controllers were: “I’ve lost control of one of my engines ... so long.”

At 9.30am on Wednesday, Mansell, from Knowle, in the West Midlands, had embarked on his fourth island hop of the day, carrying seven locals and two Dutch tourists. He was flying at 3,500ft when the right engine of his Britten-Norman Islander gave out.

He made a mayday call but was knocked unconscious by the impact of the landing. He became trapped between his seat and the cockpit instrument panel. Several passengers were knocked unconscious in the incident but came to with minor head injuries and escaped with everyone else on board. Two passengers on the Divi Divi Air flight attempted to pull Mansell out of the aircraft but fled through the door when it began to sink. The passengers were all plucked from the sea by rescue services.

One former colleague has posted details of the crash on a tribute website. He said: “He slammed his head on the cockpit glass and remained unconscious. It was difficult to get the safety belts out. [They had] 10 to 15 seconds to get out of the plane, otherwise more people could have died.”

The Foreign Office has confirmed that Mansell died on Wednesday. His body has yet to be recovered: rescuers have located the aircraft beneath the Caribbean sea but lack the equipment to retrieve it.

The twin-engined Islander is described by its British maker as the best-selling commercial aircraft produced in western Europe and is known for its good safety record.

Mansell’s father, Roger, said his son had repeatedly told him that the Caribbean airline’s planes were overloaded as passengers and luggage were not weighed properly.

“I am furious,” he said. “If you have nine people on board and a plane is overloaded and a problem develops, it becomes much harder to fix.

“He was a wonderful son and a hero. Quite how he managed to bring the plane down in the water like that without it breaking apart is beyond me. It is a miracle that the passengers survived.”

Mansell had been working at Divi Divi for three months. He studied aeronautical engineering at Bristol University, before travelling to Australia to train for his pilot’s licence, and had also flown for two companies in the Solomon Islands, about 800 miles west of Papua New Guinea.

Germaine Richie, the airline’s owner, said: “We reject any allegations that we are overloading planes and putting safety at risk.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• He stole my son, now I’m alone in hell
• Back on the air, but don’t mention Mugabe
• Ten kitchen gadget gift ideas