A RIBBLE Valley pilot was killed when a "failed bolt" caused both wings to fall off her glider, an air accident investigation has found.

Amy Barsby, 25, from Longridge, was flying in a competition when the wings detached from the fuselage of her aircraft and she fell hundreds of feet to the ground as her boyfriend Bruce Duncan and father Steven, watched on helplessly.

Now people with a similar glider have been issued with safety advice to try and prevent a similar tragedy.

Miss Barsby, a PHD student, was pronounced dead at the scene at Bicester Airfield, Oxfordshire, in August last year.

A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), said a failed bolt had led to the wings coming off but said it had “not been possible to detect” the problem before the plane took off.

The report said that the wood and fibreglass Foka 4 glider had descended from a height of between 600ft and 1,000ft.

It said that it would have been impossible for the former Clitheroe Grammar School pupil, who had 10 years' flying experience, to survive the accident.

The former Longridge High School pupil had become interested in gliding at the age of 17 when she took part in a cadet training course at the Bowland Forest Gliding Club, Chipping.

She studied archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, becoming president of the university’s gliding club, and went on to study a PhD in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen’s University, Belfast, where she had been carrying out research into possible causes of cancer.

The AAIB report recommended safety measures to ensure there were ways of determining whether the bolt involved in the accident, the lower bevel bolt, was properly attached.

Keith Auchterlonie, from the British Gliding Association, urged people with similar gliders to take additional care.

He said: "These gliders do have a good safety record but we are aware of an issue with the glider where it can be difficult to see whether the bolt is connected properly to the fuselage.

"And so we have issued safety advice asking people to take extra care."

The Foka 4, was designed and manufactured by Szybowcowy Zaklad Doswiadczalny (SZD) Bielsko in Poland in the 1960s and it is no longer in production.

Amy leaves dad Steve Barsby, 55, mum Helen, 55, and sister Lorna, 21.