Glider pilot plunged to her death after both wings fell off at 1,000ft

AN EXPERIENCED young pilot died when her glider’s wings fell off, an inquest has heard.

Amy Barsby, 25, had just taken off on her second flight of the day as part of a university competition when the accident happened.

The glider nose-dived to the ground from a height of between 600ft and 1,000ft, watched by her distraught boyfriend, Bruce Duncan.

Mr Duncan, who had just bought a house in Edinburgh with Miss Barsby, wept as he gave evidence at the inquest in Oxford yesterday.

A coroner’s court jury recorded a verdict of accidental death. Both the pilot’s parents and the coroner urged changes to be made to similar gliders.

The mechanical failure happened after Miss Barsby and a group of friends assembled the Foka 4 glider incorrectly at Bicester Airfield in Oxfordshire earlier on the day of the accident on 8 August last year.

There was no way for them to check that a bolt holding the wings in place was in the right position, the hearing was told. They had also unwittingly used the wrong tool to tighten it.

It was the first time Miss Barsby, originally from Lancashire and who had been gliding since she was 16, had assembled that model of glider.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said authorities needed to take action so that modifications were made to other gliders to avoid future deaths.

Mr Duncan, a gliding instructor, had been securing the wing tip to keep the glider stable just before launch, and said everything appeared to be “absolutely normal”. Describing what happened next, he said: “I turned my back for a few seconds while it was in the main climb and walked back to the launchpad. I turned back to watch the rest of the climb before seeing the wings separate.”

He wept as Mr Gardiner said: “I’m sure it was very distressing for you.”

The coroner said he would write a letter to authorities asking for a “minor alteration” to be made to the fuselage of similar gliders so that the position of the lower bolt can be seen.

He will also ask for the message to be given to pilots to only use the tools provided with the glider.

Miss Barsby’s parents have called for all gliders with similar wing fixings to be grounded until modifications have been made.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch report issued earlier this year recommended to the European Aviation Safety Agency that safety changes be made to such gliders, but said it had not yet received a full response.

Speaking after the verdict was given, Miss Barsby’s father, Steven, 57, said: “Amy was passionate about gliding. It was a sport that brought great joy and exhilaration to her short life, and also it brought with it a wealth of good friends.

“It is a consolation to us to know that her death came instantly and she bore no suffering.”

Miss Barsby was an Edinburgh University graduate and was studying for a PhD at Queen’s University in Belfast at the time of the crash.