A close colleague of Baildon lighting firm chief Norman Scoular, who died in the Swiss airline crash, told today of his sorrow at the death of his boss and friend.

Mr Scoular was returning from a business trip in Massachusetts to his home in Geneva when the airliner crashed into the sea off Canada, killing 229 people.

The divorced father-of-three, originally from Bramhall, Greater Manchester, was chief executive of London-based Sylvania Lighting International which owns SLI Lighting in Otley Road, Baildon.

His deputy Roger McSweeny said he had spoken to the 45-year-old just minutes before he boarded the Swissair flight.

Mr McSweeny said: "He was at the peak of his career. A man of prodigious energy and a man of great warmth and charisma."

He said he had known his boss, who was a keen golfer, for 20 years. Mr Scoular, who had an 18-year-old son and two daughters in their 20s, had lived in Geneva for five years.

He added: "I have lost a great boss and a great friend. To use a football analogy, Norman was capable of taking a team from the third division and putting it in the first.

"He was the best. His job took him all over the world and he was a regular traveller, usually working through most of the flight. He never worried about flying, he did it so often."

Mr Scoular, who was chief executive of the group, was returning from a meeting at headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts. He had flown from Boston Logan Airport to JKF in New York.

"He rang me from the airport but had to break off conversation because he was called to board the flight."

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