Air disaster victim Glenn home at last

Ever since Glenn, 49, lost his life in the Ukraine air disaster on July 17, his devastated relatives have had just a single, simple wish. To bring him home.

On Monday evening, they got that wish at last.

A plane which left Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam – the very same airport from which tragic Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 left from exactly two months ago today – landed at East Midlands Airport.

A minute’s silence was held on Glenn’s arrival before his body was taken to a nearby coroner’s office.

His twin sister, Tracey Withers, was among the family members who flew out to Amsterdam on Sunday to bring her brother on his final journey home.

She described the trip as “the longest two days ever”.

Once Glenn’s body has been released by the coroner, he will return to Blackpool, where a funeral will take place.

Mrs Withers, of South Shore, said she plans to drape four flags – British, Brazilian, Swiss and United Nations – over the coffin.

She documented her travels to repatriate Glenn’s body on Facebook, where news of his return was welcomed by friends and former colleagues on a page set up in his memory.

She posted pictures from Schiphol Airport, which has been decorated with a huge array of tributes to the victims of the MH17 disaster.

Belinda Jenkins wrote: “The world would be a perfect place if it were filled with people like Glenn.

“There are no words to praise him enough.”

Tracey Dagger wrote: “Welcome home Glenn, you will always be in my thoughts and prayers, God bless.”

Glenn, 49, worked as a journalist on the Fylde coast before going on to work for the BBC and Granada.

He was a keen traveller and spent the last 10 years living in Switzerland, where he had been working as a press officer for the World Health Organisation in Geneva.

The former Highfield School pupil regularly visited the Fylde coast and had been due to return in time for his 50th birthday on the Saturday.