“We have to look to the future. It is a question of rebuilding our lives, the only way you can look at it is that we have been given a second chance.”

Edwin Harman is philosophical as he reflects in the aftermath of the Farnborough plane crash that claimed five lives and his family home.

It was only several twists of fate that meant neither he nor his wife Patricia were home when the private jet crashed into their house in Romsey Close, Farnborough.

Mrs Harman had stayed overnight at her brother’s house in Epping after a holiday in Madeira with her daughter.

She stayed up late talking about the trip and a change of clocks meant it was a late night and a later start the next day.

Mr Harman, 72, was in Spain on last-minute golf trip with friends. They were the first holidays the couple had taken apart.

Mr Harman said: “My wife was talking about her holiday into the early hours of the morning, Then the clocks went forward so they made a later start and thank God it was a late start.

“They were on the motorway when the accident happened – my wife was 20 minutes away from the front door.

“She was there just moments after it happened and she was in shock. She went to a neighbour’s house after she arrived on the street and was treated by paramedics for shock. Thankfully she was all right.”

“I think we are really lucky when you look at the circumstances. I wasn’t even supposed to go on the golfing holiday, someone dropped out and I was a stand-in.

“We had asked our neighbours to go in and turn the central heating on for us on Sunday but luckily they weren’t there at the time of the accident. There is so much luck involved.”