A MOVING tribute from the girlfriend of the York pilot who died in the Cork air disaster has been read out at his funeral.

Beth Webster, who shared a home in the Rawcliffe area with 27-year-old Andrew Cantle, described him as “perfect” at his funeral in Sunderland yesterday.

The tribute was read out by a representative of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

Mr Cantle spent time as a lifeboat man in his native north-east before becoming a pilot.

Beth said: “He was a lifeboat man that wasn’t very good at swimming and a pilot who was scared of heights, but to me he was perfect.

“The sky will be quieter (without him), our flat will be quieter and my life will be quieter.”

She said: “He made me laugh every day and it made me love him more and more. We told each other every day that we loved each other.”

Mr Cantle’s coffin was brought into Sunderland Minster draped in the flag of the RNLI. During his eight years with the service he took part in 65 emergency missions and rescued 66 people.

Speaking in the church, Paul Nicholson, senior helmsman at Sunderland RNLI, said: “Andy loved life and lived it at a hundred miles an hour.

“There was never a dull moment when he was around and he could always put a smile on your face or raise the spirits of a room.

Mr Nicholson said: “When there was a job to be done and it was time to get serious, Andy was your man.

You always knew that when the going got tough you could count on Andy to pull out all the stops.”

Mr Cantle had been flying as co-pilot with the Manx2 airline when his flight crashed in thick fog at Cork Airport in Ireland earlier this month.

His parents, John, 58, and Ann, 56 were among the mourners who packed the church to say their final farewells.

Miss Webster said becoming a pilot was one of the proudest moments of Andrew’s life.