A RIBBLE Valley pilot has fallen to her death when the wings fell off her glider during a competition.

Amy Barsby, 25, from Longridge, has been described as a wonderful, adventurous but sensible person who packed a lot into her life.

The PHD student's father Steven said Amy's boyfriend, Bruce Duncan, a gliding instructor, witnessed the wings of her aircraft falling off in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

The former Clitheroe Grammar School pupil, who had 10 years' flying experience, died from multiple injuries.

She crashed on Sunday during the Inter-University Gliding Competition.

Gliders are launched by a tractor-type machine that pulls them along until the air gets under the wings, carrying them up to 1,000ft.

Mr Barsby said his daughter had undertaken a successful test flight and had 'reached the right height' when a wing separated.

He said: "It sounds like they more or less came away at the same time and then it plunged down to the ground. It was all over in a few seconds.

"Bruce witnessed the event and we understand that his first reaction was to instantly call the emergency services.

"Fortunately he was prevented from seeing Amy at the crash scene but he is struggling to make sense why such a lovely young woman has been taken from us at such a young age.

"The emergency vehicle was on scene very quickly and I think it was apparent that she died instantly.

"The AAIB (Air Accident Investigation Bureau) then took over and the full investigation is underway."

Speaking from the family home in Dilworth Lane, Longridge, which he shares with Amy's mother, Helen and her younger sister, Lorna, Mr Barsby paid tribute to his eldest daughter.

He said: "She always had a sense of adventure.

"She loved walking, skiing, horse riding, she was treated for her 21st birthday by her friends from uni to a white-water rafting experience.

"She enjoyed the adrenaline rush that she got from that.

"Amy was a very sensible girl, though. She was always very safety-conscious.

"She was never reckless, always very measured in what she did, but she did enjoy herself in every way.

"Her legacy for us as a family will be the memories that we will have of her.

"She has been taken from us at such a young age and that's so unfair.

"She was a wonderful child and daughter and we had so much to look forward but what we have now is just memories.

"She packed quite a lot into her short life. The sense is quite unreal but then it hits home again that we aren't going to see her anymore."

Amy, a silver grade pilot, went to Longridge High School.

Following that she went on to do her A-levels at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, before heading to Edinburgh University in 2003 to study archaeology where she met Bruce.

After graduating she went to study for a PhD at Queens University, Belfast, into the links between trace elements in soils and waters and cancer.

She was due to finish writing up her findings in the autumn this year.

She and Bruce had bought a home together in Edinburgh last year.

Amy joined the cadet scheme at Bowland Forest Gliding Club aged 16.

She soon progressed to fly solo in the glider.

A spokesman for Bowland Forest Gliding Club said: “She was a lovely person and we are devastated to hear about her accident.

She was a good pilot and a super person."