Honda skydiving ad plane crashes killing two

Honda said in a statement: "No-one on the plane was in any way connected to Honda or with the company's advertising shoot.

"Honda extends its sincerest condolences to the families of the two people killed."

The plane, a Swiss-made Pilatus PC-6, crashed on Friday afternoon near Lilo airfield in the province of Toledo, south of Madrid.

The Honda live ad, created by 4Creative with support from media agency Starcom, had been screened just the previous evening, as part of its "Difficult is worth doing" campaign to launch its Accord model.

The ad went smoothly as the 19 stuntmen plummeted to the Earth from 14,000 feet above sea level and managed to spell out the word Honda within the three minutes and 20 second time slot.

Channel 4 said the ad break drew an average of 2.2m individual viewers; it began with 2.1m viewers at 20.10pm and ended with 2.3m viewers at 20.13pm. The broadcaster estimated the audience for the ad grew by 8% during its live transmission.

Following the live ad, the campaign continued on Sunday with the main Wieden & Kennedy-created TV ad, called "jump".

"Jump" was filmed in the Mojave Desert, California, and features a large team of skydivers attempting to form shapes in the sky that hint at the new technologies on the Honda Accord, including a suspension spring, a camera, a steering wheel and ultimately the word "Accord".