A COUPLE whose home was destroyed when a plane crashed, killing the five people onboard, have spoken of their mixed feelings after the disaster.

Ed and Pat Harman’s house in Romsey Close, Farnborough, was wrecked when a private jet en route from Biggin Hill to France smashed into it on March 30, 2008.

Yesterday an inquest into the deaths of the two pilots and three passengers on the plane gave a verdict of accidental death.

Mr and Mrs Harman say the inquest brought back memories of the accident, and the mixture of “incredible relief and sadness” they felt at the time.

Mrs Harman, 71, said: “We felt so relieved to have not been home at the time of the crash, but at the same time we felt horrible for the people who had died and their families.”

Mr and Mrs Harman had both been away on separate holidays, and Mrs Harman was due to arrive home with her brother and sister-in-law around 30 minutes before the plane hit the house.

However, on the way to the house her brother suggested going to a supermarket to get some shopping, thus unknowingly saving her life.

Retired NHS secretary Mrs Harman said: “It’s amazing to think that going to Tesco saved my life.”

On the anniversary of the crash this year, the family of one of the pilots, 57-year-old Michael Chapman, from West Sussex, visited the Harman’s home.

Mr Harman, 76, a retired insurance claims broker, said: “They came here to pay their respects to him, and we saw them outside and invited them in for a cup of tea.

“There’s not much you can say to make them feel better, of course, but it felt right to invite them inside.”

Mr and Mrs Harman say they were “devastated” by the destruction of their home, where they had been living for more than 25 years, as well as their treasured belongings inside.

Mrs Harman said: “The loss of your home is a big thing. As well as the house being gone, we lost a lot of precious, sentimental things which are irreplaceable.

“We lost all our photos of our children as kids. We lost videos of my parents, and my mum’s jewellery.”

She added: “I was shocked and traumatised after the crash, by the thought that we could have been inside and because we’d lost so much.”

Mr and Mrs Harman, who have been married 21 years and have three children and six grandchildren, moved back into their rebuilt home in November 2009, after staying in nearby Paddock Close during the reconstruction.

Mrs Harman said: “One of the most difficult things after the crash was writing lists for the insurance company of everything we had lost.

“I was in shock and traumatised, but I was having to try to remember everything that had gone.

“Of course, we haven’t got everything back. There are some things you don’t remember you had until you realise you don’t have them any more.”

She added: “We had done a lot of work to the house before the accident, to make it feel like ours, and it was only in July last year that this new house started to feel like home again.”