Husband saw wife's death plunge

A widower has told an inquest how he watched as his wife plummeted 1,200ft to her death when a glider fell apart over a Lincolnshire airfield.

Christine Ryder, 63, and pilot Michael Fairburn, 55, both died instantly in the crash on 26 May 2004.

Her husband David, 65, witnessed the crash from the control tower at Strubby Airfield, near Louth.

The coroner recorded two verdicts of accidental death at the hearing in Louth on Wednesday.

Mrs Ryder was a novice flyer from Sutton-on-Sea with 11 hours experience.

'Loud crack'

The hearing was told Mr Fairburn, from Louth, had already taken the 45-year-old KA7 glider for a short flight to check it out after earlier repairs following damage in a rough landing a week earlier.

Mrs Ryder had "jumped at the chance" of making a flight with an experienced instructor who promised to show her some aerobatics.

Mr Ryder, secretary of the Lincolnshire Gliding Club, said he watched the launch but his attention was distracted by two gliders that seemed to be trying to land on the same runway.

But within minutes of take-off, the right wing of the plane simply snapped off, sending the craft plunging to the ground.

He added: "Suddenly I heard a loud crack and whipped round. The glider had its nose down. It was cartwheeling and spinning like a sycamore seed."

Air accident investigator John Hoskins, of the British Gliding Association, said it was not possible to give a definite reason why the wing fell off.

Louth and District Lincolnshire Coroner Stuart Fisher said that nobody in their wildest dreams could have thought the wing would drop off.