Cambridgeshire crash balloon pilot dies in Alps fall

Prayers were said at a local church for a Cambridgeshire hot air balloon pilot who died near a ski resort in the French Alps after surviving a crash.

Bob Bickerdike, 63, was a retired garden centre owner from Brampton and a member of Huntingdon Community Church.

On Sunday the congregation paid tribute to the family man who crashed near Abondance on Thursday evening.

He phoned colleagues to say he was safe but they lost contact and his body was found five hours later in a ravine.

Local police believed he may have lost his footing on ice 6,000ft (1,839ft) up the mountain trying to reach a cluster of chalets below.

An investigation into the death has started.