A CREMATION service held for Hampshire plane crash victim Aaron Slack has been captured on camera for his loved ones across the Atlantic.

Photographs taken from the small service at Southampton Crematorium are to be sent to his partner in California, where a larger scale memorial service is expected to take place in the next fortnight.

Bachelor Mr Slack, 39, was one of two men who perished when a light aircraft crash-landed on to a Southampton riverbank last month.

Pilot Richard Armstrong, 41, was hailed a hero after he managed to bring the aircraft down on open land - narrowly avoiding a school playground full of hundreds of children.

A single police officer was the only person who attended Mr Slack's brief cremation service last week.

DC Steve Brewer, part of the crash investigation team at Hulse Road divisional police headquarters in Southampton, took photographs of the coffin for Mr Slack's partner, along with a floral tribute provided by Hampshire police. Mr Slack's ashes and various personal items recovered from the wreckage, including photos, diaries and credit cards, will also be sent to his loved ones in San Diego.

Meanwhile a funeral service for divorced father-of-two Mr Armstrong, of Chelsea Harbour, London, has taken place in Oxfordshire.

Initial investigations have suggested engine failure was the likeliest cause of the tragedy on June 19.

The single-engine Rockwell Commander crash-landed only moments after take-off at Southampton International Airport. Police said it appeared the plane had landed on the only available patch of clear ground, suggesting the pilot had tried to avoid buildings and the nearby railway line as well as Bitterne Park School, less than a quarter of a mile away. Today, Det Insp Nigel Niven, leading the police inquiry, said: "We are still conducting an investigation on behalf of the AAIB. Although initial findings indicate no sign of foul play, we are keeping an open mind."

The Air Accident Investigation Bureau is expected to publish a full report into the cause of the accident early next year.