AN inquest into the death of Herefordshire skydiver Stephen Hilder will be held in March, a coroner has announced.

Mr Hilder plunged 13,000ft to his death over Hibaldstow airfield, in north Lincolnshire, in the summer of 2003 after both his main and reserve parachutes were tampered with.

A spokeswoman for the Coroner's Office in North Lincolnshire said the inquest would take place at Pittwood House in Scunthorpe, starting on Wednesday, March 16.

It is expected to last for several days, spread over three weeks.

The full inquest will be held before North Lincolnshire Coroner Stewart Atkinson, who will decide whether Mr Hilder took his own life after detectives said the Army cadet was not murdered.

Humberside Police said a forensic examination of a pair of scissors found in the 20-year-old's car had shown they had been used to cut the straps on his parachute "rig" and that only Mr Hilder's DNA was found on them.

Following the discovery, officers publicly cleared two of Mr Hilder's friends, who were with him on his last jump, of any involvement in his death.

David Mason, of Cambridge, and Adrian Blair, of Cornwall, were arrested and spent a night in custody during the inquiry into what police originally thought was the cadet's murder.

But detectives have said the questions of whether Mr Hilder's death on July 4, 2003 was suicide and whether there was any significance to the similarities between his death and the demise of the hero in the film Drop Zone - also on July 4, US Independence Day - were matters for the coroner.

On the day he died Mr Hilder, from Stretton Sugwas, near Hereford, was competing in the British Collegiate Parachute Association national championships.

Mr Hilder was in a team with Mr Blair and Mr Mason, who were also officer cadets and studied with him at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, near Swindon, Wiltshire.

The trio, who formed at Christmas 2002, called themselves Black Rain and had completed 50 jumps together.