Former Whitby woman Lisa Knaggs (21) was pursuing her dream of learning to fly in America two-and-a-half years ago when her small Cessna aircraft fell to the ground during a solo cross-country journey.

Tragically, Lisa – described by her devastated mum Julie Ayre as "bright and vivacious" – was just days away from receiving her official pilot's licence when the crash happened in October 2005 at La Belle Airport in southern Florida.

Now the inquest into her death has heard how the wing flap switch on the four-seater plane had failed just days before, but this had been left unreported by former Stakesby School pupil Lisa's instructor Mounee Thompson.

After taking to the air for her fateful final flight, Lisa tried to move the flaps to an angle of ten degrees but they jammed at 30 degrees, leading to the Cessna stalling before falling to the ground.

Mr Thompson's statement, read at the inquest, revealed how the flaps had failed during a flight with another student but he had not reported the fault.

The statement said: "Demonstrating descending with flaps, I moved the flap lever to retract them, and they did not move. I therefore reset the lever to the original position and tried again. This time the flaps moved normally.

"I did not mention this episode to any of the mechanics."

An aviation expert told the inquest he believed an electrical problem was to blame for the crash, which supported evidence from a previous report commissioned by the US National Transportation Safety Board.

After Leeds coroner David Hinchcliffe recorded a verdict of accidental death, Lisa's mum Julie said: "My daughter would still be with us today if the fault in the wing flap switch had been reported to maintenance first time it happened.

"I am disgusted and appalled that this did not happen.

"We had no idea when she went to America to learn to fly that this sort of thing could happen.

"She was so sweet and cute and so very, very happy out there.

"She was my rock, my angel, my best friend."