Peru Plane Crash Victim from Herts

4 October 2010, 08:45 | Updated: 4 October 2010, 12:28

One of the four British tourists killed in a light aircraft crash in Peru at the weekend was from our region.

34-year old Gayle Callow, originally from Tring in Hertfordshire, was fulfilling her dream of seeing the world when she died, according to her ex-husband.

The 34-year old NHS manager was on a Cessna plane that came down 249 miles south east of Lima on Saturday.

Her former husband Scott Callow, who’s 38, said he was devastated when police told him of Gayle's death on Sunday morning.

Mr Callow said: "We were divorced for a year. Gayle wanted to go travelling. Peru was somewhere she always wanted to visit.  She had gone out there in the middle of last week."

Mr Callow, a former chef who now works as a plasterer, had gone to their previous home in Tring to tell neighbours of the tragedy.

He said: "We had been together for 12 years and were married for 10. She said she still loved me - it was just that she had wanted to travel. She had said she was like a caged bird and had wanted to see the world."

The couple did not have any children. Mr Callow said Gayle's parents were shocked by the news. She has an older brother and a younger brother and sister. He said she had worked as a psychiatric nurse for 13 years before working for the NHS in Bracknell on computer systems.

Mr Callow said: "Gayle was quite high up in the NHS and was doing well in her career. She was a determined, head-strong person and very career-orientated. "

He went on: "We were still best friends and were in regular contact. I am devastated.

"She said she still loved me to pieces. We split up because she had wanted to spread her wings, but we felt a lot for each other. She was the beneficiary in my will."

30 year old Andrew Brown, Alastair Rowe and Warren Denham, who are both in their 30’s, also died when the plane came down in a field near the centuries-old Nazca Lines markings.

The plane is thought to have suffered engine trouble and crashed after taking off from the local Maria Reiche airport at about 11.15pm British time on Saturday.

Local police said the aircraft hit the field as the pilot and co-pilot tried to make an emergency landing. Two Peruvian crew members also died in the crash.