Human error is believed to have led to a light aircraft crash which killed an experienced 25-year-old pilot, an inquest heard today.

Mark Golding died from multiple injuries when the four-seater Cessna he was flying plummeted into corn fields on August 7 last year.

Witnesses described seeing Mr Golding start his ascent without problem at Bracklesham Bay airfield, near Chichester.

However, Roger Harris told the inquest in Arundel that he became alarmed when the plane suddenly turned sharply and a wing started to drop.

He said: "He took off in the normal way, going right to the end of the runway before doing his checks.

"He then applied full power, released the brakes and at the usual place and height carried out a climbing turn.

"About three-quarters of the way through I noticed his turn was sharper. As he made the final part of the turn, I saw the aeroplane stall and start to fall."

Mr Harris described how the plane's tail lifted and it started to descend before crashing into fields at Earnley, a short distance from the airstrip.

The inquest heard that Mr Golding was an experienced pilot who had gained a full commercial licence last year after graduating from Liverpool University two years earlier.

He had been carrying out banner-towing flights on behalf of an operator based in Herne Bay, Kent, to build up his flying hours.

Mr Golding, of Coulsdon Rise, Coulsdon, near Croydon, Surrey, had been on banner-towing exercises on the weekend of his death and was due to fly back solo to Kent when the tragedy happened just after 4pm.

Suggestions that he may have been suffering from fatigue at the time of the crash were discounted by his father, Peter Golding.

Mr Harris described him as "clearly a professional, conscientious and competent" pilot.

West Sussex Coroner Roger Stone said: "It seems at best that human error has led to problems with the controlling of the aircraft."

The inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death.