Plane man jumps to his death

A man threw himself 5,000 feet to his death from a two-seater aircraft after apparently panicking when he thought it was going to crash.

The 42-year-old is understood to have pushed open the door of the Cessna 172 and edged himself out without a parachute as the woman pilot battled to control the plane, said to have been experiencing difficulties due to severe icing on the wings.

The dead man is understood to have known the pilot although the pair, who have not been named, were not related. Police said both were British nationals.

The incident happened at 4pm yesterday over the tiny village of Fifield, Oxfordshire. The man struck a tree before landing on a children's football field only yards away from houses. A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said: "The pilot reported severe icing on the wings and requested to make an emergency landing at RAF Brize Norton.

"However, 10 miles out she radioed that a man had opened a door of the plane and jumped out. Icing on the wings can be quite serious. The weight of the ice can affect the ability to fly the craft. This can result in a loss of altitude and can, in some cases, cause a crash landing.

"I suppose the man could have panicked if the plane was in difficulty and decided to take his chance by jumping."

The Cessna was en route from France to a private airfield at Hinton-in-the-Hedges, Northamptonshire. After touching down safely, it was impounded at RAF Brize Norton.

Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious, adding that a full investigation was under way involving the CAA, Ministry of Defence Police and Thames Valley Police.

Officers were attempting to contact the man's relatives today. The pilot was said to be "distraught".

A witness, who did not wish to be named, said she saw the plane circling Fifield . She said: "It came down quite low and circled round a couple of times, then flew off. We didn't know what had happened at the time, but now I wonder if that was just after the man had fallen out."

Local pilots who use the privately-run Hinton-in-the-Hedges airfield said that it was common for light aircraft to come in from the continent.

One said: "It would be impossible for a pilot to force someone out of a small plane while trying to fly in emergency conditions. The plane would have been bound to crash if there was a fight in the cockpit. All anyone can think of is that the man panicked."

? A British Airways flight with 120 passengers on board was forced to turn back to Heathrow after a smoke alert yesterday.

The Airbus A320 was travelling from London to Edinburgh when a light went on warning of smoke in the cockpit. Emergency services at Heathrow were put on alert but the plane landed safely.