'I saw SAS man jump from plane'

An SAS veteran deliberately undid his lap belt and jumped from a light plane without a parachute, an inquest was told today.

Charles Bruce, 45, an experienced sky diver, leapt from the Cessna172 as his co-pilot brought it in to land.

Mr Bruce, who had fought a long battle against mental illness, plunged 5,000 feet, crashing through trees onto a football pitch near the Oxfordshire village of Fifield in January.

He had been flying back from Spain with his friend, Judith Haig, 29, when the tragedy occurred.

Miss Haig, from Cobham in Kent, had recently obtained her pilot's licence and the couple were joint owners of the two-seater plane.

Giving evidence at Oxford coroner's court today, she said the former soldier, who was an experienced pilot, had been quieter than normal during the two-day flight but she had had no worries about his mental state. "He was just keen to get home," she said.

As the weather deteriorated they decided to land at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire rather than Northamptonshire, where Mr Bruce lived.

While she was talking to the control tower at Brize Norton she noticed that Mr Bruce had carefully begun to slide his seat back.

"I had a sense of what was going on," she told the hearing. "He'd been looking out of the window and he turned round and said a few words to me. I asked him to help me because I was struggling to interpret the signals and it's often better to have two pairs of eyes and ears."

But as she concentrated on controlling the plane he unlocked his belt, opened the door and moved to jump out. "I grabbed hold of him," Miss Haig said. "I had one hand on his waistband and the other on the controls. It all happened so quickly. I had no means of stopping him."

Mr Bruce's body was found on the ground by police. He had suffered massive injuries. Robert Carter, a senior inspector with the Air Accident Investigation Branch, said he had found nothing wrong with the aircraft and that to get out would "require a very deliberate effort".

A colleague, Robin Tydeman, said the pilot had said over the radio "in a very agitated voice" that a passenger had jumped from the plane.

Returning a verdict of suicide, coroner Nicholas Gardiner said he would write to authorities to request a change in policy aimed at making it more difficult for people with psychiatric problems to get a pilot's licence.

He added: "There is nothing to suggest that Mr Bruce did not know what he was doing."

Mr Bruce's family left the inquest without making any comment but in a statement, Miss Haig's parents Nigel and Margaret said they were proud of the skilled, competent and courageous way she handled the shocking and distressing situation.

Mr Bruce joined the Parachute Regiment aged 17. He was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal in 1986 for his service in Northern Ireland.

The hearing continues.