Two pilots among the victims

Two pilots, a solicitor and a businessman died in the Hatfield rail crash. Pilots

Mr Alcorn was a Learjet pilot who had just started his "dream job" of flying for former Formula One champion Mika Hakkinen. The New Zealander, who had served in his country's army and navy, was due to marry his girlfriend of 12 years, Angela Smith, who lived with him in Bayswater.

He had been working for Hakkinen and his McLaren-Mercedes team for only 10 days. Mr Arthur, of Pease Pottage, West Sussex, was married with two children. Lindsey, his wife, said: "I had heard nothing about the crash, and the first I knew of it was a message on my answering machine from one of the passengers Steve had been due to pick up in Leeds."

Company director Paul Monkhouse, 50, and solicitor Leslie Gray, 43, were returning home from business trips to London.

Mr Monkhouse, from Leeds, was described by his wife and three children as a "fantastic husband and father who would be sorely missed."

Managing director of Q Marketing and Media, based in Leeds, he had been to a meeting in London the day before and had been due to return home the same night - but decided to stay overnight in the capital.

Mr Gray, of Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, left a wife, Sabine, and eight-year-old son. Sabine said: "I lost the best friend I ever had.

I hope something like this never happens to anybody else."