LONDON (AFP) - Former world rally champion Colin McRae and his five-year-old son were among four people killed in a helicopter crash this weekend in southern Scotland, police said Sunday.
Scotsman McRae, his son Johnny and two family friends including a six-year-old boy were killed when the 39-year-old driver's Squirrel Two aircraft crashed in the grounds of his Lanark home on Saturday.
Tributes poured in from the sporting and political arenas in honour of McRae, who in 1995 was the first Briton to win the world rally championship.
"We believe that the group were just returning from a visit to the nearby village of Quarter around 1605 (1505 GMT) hours yesterday, when it appears that the helicopter got into difficulty and crashed within the grounds of Mr McRae's family home," Chief Superintendent Tim Love said in a statement issued by Strathclyde Police.
"Our officers are working closely with the Air Accident Investigation Team who are presently at the scene.
"Family liaison officers have been appointed and are with the families to help them through this distressing and difficult time."
The two others were named as six-year-old Ben Porcelli, of Lanark, and Graeme Duncan, 37, who lived in France.
A police spokeswoman stressed that the bodies had not yet been formally identified.
The crash wreckage, which was in thick woods, was so bad it was initially difficult to determine how many people were involved.
Colin Steele McRae, a licensed pilot, was born in Lanark on August 5, 1968.
He had two children, Hollie and Johnny, with his wife Alison.
Nicky Grist, McRae's co-driver since 1997, expressed his sorrow.
"He was such a great character and will be sorely missed," he told Sky News, adding that the death of Johnny and the two friends made it an even greater tragedy.
"Johnny adored his father and loved everything about cars," Grist said.
"I am sure he was the new rally driver for the McRae family."
David Richards, McRae's former boss at Subaru -- where he enjoyed much of his rallying success -- described his death as "a terrible loss."
"He had a competitive spirit like I've never seen," Richards tod the BBC.
"He was one of those people who had an extraordinary spirit that you just can't define."
Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, said McRae's death was a "great tragedy."
"Colin McRae was an outstanding Scottish sportsman of international stature and achievement," he said.
McRae competed in his first rally on the World Rally Championship circuit in Sweden in 1987, earning his first win in New Zealand in 1993.
Driving a Subaru Impreza 555, the Scot won the 1995 World Rally Championship in a nail-biting finish on home soil and was the runner-up in 1996, 1997 and 2001.
He was made a MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996.
The driving legend is also known for "Colin McRae Rally" -- a series of racing video games, played on many platforms, which have sold more than eight million copies worldwide.
The rally driver's official website, www.colinmcrae.com , was changed to a black screen on Sunday morning, prior to police confirmation of his death.
"I'm not really a fan of computers," McRae was quoted as saying on his website before it went offline.
He added: "When it comes to computers and electronics, give me 300 brake horsepower, a winding road -- and no brakes, and then you've got my attention!"
But McRae will not be remembered for the statistics of his career. Instead, it was his attacking driving style that endeared him to millions of fans the world over.
His risk-taking style set him apart from his rivals, and won him his legions of admirers, but it also meant he did not win as many rallies - or world titles - as his talent deserved.
He was arguably the out-and-out quickest driver of his era, but his speed was undermined by a propensity to make mistakes - he was, it used to seem, as likely to end a rally upside down in a ditch as on the winners' rostrum.
Colin McRae and British rival Richard Burns
Along with Englishman Richard Burns he was at the head of a golden generation of British rally driving talent
But those errors did nothing to harm his popularity, which was enhanced by a successful series of computer games licensed with his name.
The reach of McRae's reputation was such that, even four years after his full-time career in the World Rally Championship was over, he was at the time of his death still probably the most famous rally driver in the world.
McRae came from a well-known Scottish motor racing family - his father, Jimmy, is a five-time British rally champion and his brother, Alister, is also a former British rally champion.
McRae won the British rally title himself in 1991 and '92 and took his first victory on the world stage in New Zealand in 1993, driving a Subaru Impreza.
He went on to help the team to three consecutive world titles - including his, which he won at the final round after a close battle with team-mate Sainz.
It gave him the honour of becoming Britain's first world rally champion and he was awarded an MBE the following year for his services to motorsport.
He was a leading figure in the world championship for a decade, driving for Ford and Citroen as well as Subaru.
Despite his reputation for being hard on cars, McRae won three times the Safari Rally in Kenya, widely regarded as rallying's most destructive event.
The last of those victories, in 2002, was the one with which he broke the record for individual rally wins. It was also the final victory of his career.
But although the wins came in a steady stream, McRae could never shake his reputation for inconsistency.
And after a typical, but also winless, season for Citroen in 2003, he was left on the sidelines in 2004, never to feature regularly again on the world stage.
McRae filled in his time with appearances on the Dakar Rally across the Sahara Desert, and at the Le Mans 24-Hour Race, as well as intermittent one-off returns to the world rally championship.
The penultimate of those was in Australia in 2005, when he finished third in an unfancied Skoda.
McRae felt that he had proved a point with that performance, but his hopes of a full-time return for 2006 fizzled out, and he made his final appearance in the WRC as a replacement for Loeb in that year's Rally of Turkey.
Nevertheless, memories of the way a great career came to an end short of its full potential will be weaker than those of a great racing driver in his pomp.
Along with Englishman Richard Burns, who won the world title for Subaru himself in 2001, he was at the head of a golden generation of British rally driving talent, and they sparked renewed interest in the sport in this country.
Both men are now gone - Burns died in 2005 after a long battle against a brain tumour - but their legacy remains.
Paying tribute to Burns after his death, McRae said: "He was a true character in the world of rallying and will be sadly missed."
Those words apply equally to McRae himself.
I feel so sorry about him I am speechless
I can't belive that he is dead. After Burns now McRae!
Subject: Colin McRae dies in helicopter crash 
