A PORTON Down scientist was one of four people killed in a light aircraft crash in Devon on Sunday afternoon.

Dr Paul Norman (52) was piloting the Cessna aircraft which nose-dived into a field on the Somerset and Devon border.

Dr Norman, from Winter-bourne Dauntsey in the Bourne Valley, was taking a party of five parachutists, including a national parachute champion, on a flight from Dunkeswell airfield near Honiton, home of the Devon and Somerset Parachute School.

Dr Norman and his wife Anne, who also works at the Porton Down establishment, lived in Figsbury Road, Winterbourne Dauntsey.

He died in the wreckage of the Cessna 206 plane after it came down on a sloping field near Luppitt Wood, Honiton, at about 6pm on Sunday.

Dr Norman had been a senior scientist at Porton Down for many years and this week a Porton Down spokeswoman said he had played a "key role in the field of detection and protection."

She said: "Dr Norman was a popular member of staff and everyone is deeply shocked and numbed by what has happened.

"Our thoughts go out to his family."

Dr Norman and his wife had lived in Idmiston for several years before moving to Winterbourne Dauntsey some five years ago.

It is believed Dr Norman was a keen skydiver and parachutist although on this occasion he was the pilot of the plane carrying fellow parachuting enthusiasts.

Two of them died with him in the wreckage of the plane while a third died later in hospital.

They have been named as Richard Smith (42) and his daughter Claire (17) from Winkleigh, Devon, who died at the scene, and Major Mike Wills (44), a Royal Marine and a national champion with nearly 6,000 jumps from Tiverton, who died in hospital.

The remaining two parachutists, a 23-year-old man from Taunton and a 16-year-old from Kingsteignton, Devon, are both in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital with serious injuries. The single-engined Cessna had taken off from Dunkeswell airfield with the five parachutists on board, all of whom were going to make a drop over the Devon countryside.

Before they could do so the plane developed a problem and crashed about three miles from the airfield.

A spokesman for the Devon and Cornwall police said it was not known whether the plane was attempting an emergency landing.

Witnesses told police they heard the plane in trouble with its engine spluttering and cutting out moments before the impact with the ground.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has launched a full inquiry into the crash.