A FORMER member of the SAS, Red Devil skydiver and best-selling author plunged over 4,000ft to his death when he jumped without a parachute from a light aircraft.

'Nish' Bruce, whose body was recovered from a football pitch near Fifield, Oxfordshire, on Tuesday, was well known in Hereford as a member of the crack SAS regiment.

He gained national acclaim for his 1998 autobiography 'Freefall', written under the pen name Tom Read, in which he documents his long-term battle with mental illness and his passion for skydiving.

Bruce, who was in his 40s, was travelling in a privately owned single-engine two-seater Cessna 172, which was piloted by a woman who landed the aircraft safely at nearby RAF Brize Norton.

The plane was flying from France to Northamptonshire when the pilot asked for permission to divert from her route because of ice on the wings, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.

Permission was given to land at the RAF base, 12 miles from its destination, when the pilot reported 'the passenger opened the door and jumped out', the CAA confirmed.

Superintendent Liam Macdougall, of Thames Valley Police, said: "The report came to us via air traffic control who reported that the passenger had left the aircraft without a parachute."

He added that a full-scale investigation was underway involving Thames Valley police, the Air Accident Investigation Branch and the CAA.

Bizarrely, Bruce made his first ever parachute jump from a balloon above Oxfordshire during training for the parachute regiment.

In Hereford, he was well known as a former member of the 'paras', the Red Devils display team and the SAS.

Before retirement from the Forces, he served in the Falklands, Central America and Northern Ireland.

As Tom Read, he attained nation-wide fame with the publication of 'Freefall', the story of his struggle to regain his sanity and take control of his life after his attempt to free-fall into the record books at the speed of sound found him tumbling into madness.

The book is also a journey through his past, from the free-fall displays for Royalty, an attempt on Everest, the rigours of SAS selection and covert operations to psychotic breakdown, terrifying flights of paranoia and life in asylum at home and abroad.

Hereford features largely in the book and one extract recounts: "The town centre is only about 10 minutes walk from home, but I won't go out by myself. I have a lot of friends in Hereford - drinking buddies, old girlfriends, mates from the Regiment - and I don't want them to see me like this.

"It's not just the dribbling or the shaking. I'm normally so full of beans, cracking jokes, blaggarding and flirting with the girls.

"I've lost the spark; my mind is like army porridge. Hereford is small enough for news to travel quickly, and I know people will be watching me; trying to see if I'm the same old Tom. They'll be whispering to themselves how much weight I've lost and how yellow my skin is.

"Worse still, when I'm gone, they'll tell stories about how I used to be the life and soul of the party."