Three men (aged 52, 32 and 20) were badly injured when the light airplane they were travelling in crashed yesterday in difficult terrain near the town of Valdemaqueda (Madrid).

There was some initial confusion about the crash site as first reports indicated that the plane had gone down in the area of Ávila province known as Las Navas del Marqués - given that this falls within the Castilla León region, the incident was being dealt with by their emergency services department.

Eventually, after a search of the reported crash site had proved fruitless, the crash survivors were finally located using mobile phone-tracking technology.

The three seriously injured men, who were found outside the wreck of their crashed plane, were taken to various different hospitals across the Madrid region.