Details emerge of plane crash which killed Penwortham aid worker Sam Pegram

Sam Pegram died when the Ethiopian Airlines flight he was travelling on crashed three weeks ago.

Blame for the disaster has now been levelled at the plane's anti-stalling system, according to the Wall Street Journal

The plane crashed six minutes into its flight.

Sam, a former pupil at Priory High School and Runshaw College, had dedicated his life to humanitarian work and had previously helped refugees in Jordan.

He had been based in Geneva since January and was flying to Kenya with a colleague to deliver a training programme.

They caught a connecting flight in Addis Ababa, taking off at 8.44am local time on Sunday. The plane crashed six minutes later near the town of Bishoftu.

Shortly after the disaster, his distraught mother Deborah told the Post: "Sam was so looking forward to going to Nairobi. He loved the work he was doing. "We can't believe this has happened. We're totally devastated."

Sam's father, IT consultant Mark Pegram, said: "He was so very special. I know every parent thinks that about their child, but Sam really was.

"He always had a big heart, he was always looking out for others. He had a very strong sense of what he thought was right and what was wrong and he didn't like to see anyone suffer.

"He absolutely loved the work he was doing, because he was helping ease people's suffering. And that was what was important to him more than anything else."

After A-levels at Runshaw, Preston North End fan Sam studied international relations at the University of Leeds and later did his Masters in international human rights law at York.

Earlier this week, Boeing said that the upgrades were not an admission that the system had caused the crashes.

Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the accidents, but a preliminary report from Ethiopian authorities is expected within days.