AN Inquest has heard how Marlborough's Alex Parr died in a plane crash at Dinton near Wiltshire.

Mr Parr was a Royal Air Force test pilot with years of experience when the two-seater YAak-52 civilian aircraft came down in a field.

At the inquest this week in Salisbury, Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner David Ridley informed the jury there were issues with broken flight instruments in the plane and they would need to decide if these had contributed to the tragedy.

The plane crashed in July 2016, when Mr Parr, 40, was piloting the aircraft alongside a safety pilot when an engine failure brought the plane down close to the airfield at Dinton during an attempted emergency landing.

Married with three children the jury heard that Flt Lt Parr was a perfectionist who put safety first and would not attempt to fly unless an aircraft was in full working order. His widow Dr Alice Parr said in a written statement that his job as a test pilot was to put new and modified aircraft through manoeuvres designed to test them for strains on the aircraft and to ensure they were safe.

The court heard Mr Parr had been a pilot for 20 years and worked at the Empire Test Pilots' School at nearby Boscombe Down. The inquest continues.