Pilot and wife die in mountain air crash

A British pilot and his wife died after their small plane crashed into a mountain near the French Riviera, it was confirmed yesterday.

James and Jacqueline Balmer are understood to have set off from Italy and were making their way towards Troyes, some 100 miles south-east of Paris, before they were killed.

The wreckage of their light aircraft was discovered on Mont Agel, between the port of Menton and the principality of Monaco. A spokesman for the Nice-Montagne prefecture said the crash happened on Friday afternoon.

The bodies of Balmer, 68, and his wife, 54, from Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, were transported to the nearby city of Nice.

"At present we do not know what caused the accident. Investigations are ongoing," a spokesman for the Nice-Montagne prefecture said.

Local reports suggested that fog, which blanketed the region yesterday morning, would have forced the six-seater aircraft to fly "very low" before it crash-landed on private property at an altitude of 814m.

Jacqueline Balmer was a stunt woman who went by the name of Jacquie de Creed. According to her website, she rose to fame in 1983 when she jumped a car "further than any man or woman in history", breaking the car ramp jump record. "She drove a car up a ramp at a staggering 140mph clearing 232ft 1in, in a specially prepared 1969 Ford Mustang," the website says. In a short biography, it is said she was one of only a few people in Britain who could drive a car balanced on two wheels.

Mr Balmer is understood to have run R Scott & Co menswear shop in Cirencester.