Tributes have been paid to a "hugely popular" Midland couple who died in a light aircraft crash that which has left their six-year-old son fighting for his life.

Marketing company director Lewis Tonkinson, 50, and wife Sally, 44, of Alcester, near Redditch, were killed in the crash near Popham Airfield in Hampshire on Saturday afternoon.

Their orphaned son, George, is being treated in Southampton General Hospital.

Mr Tonkinson was a co-founder of Pinnacle Marketing Communications which has a registered office in Caroline Street in the Jewellery Quarter.

According to his Facebook page, he was from West Bromwich.

In a statement on the company's website, fellow co-founder Simon Flatt said: "Lewis and Sally were a hugely popular couple and their tragic and untimely loss will leave a big gap in the lives of the great many people that knew and loved them.

"Our thoughts are with their families and, in particular, for George's speedy recovery. We would like to thank all of those who have contacted us to express their condolences."

Mr Tonkinson was described as a "gentleman" in comments beneath the announcement of the couple's death on the firm's website.

Steve Champion wrote: "My thoughts are with you all at this tragic time. Lewis was a gentleman and having worked with him for Pinnacle over several years it with a heavy heart I write this.

"My prayers go out to George and to Lewis's and Sally's families. God bless you all."

University of Warwick graduate Mr Tonkinson celebrated his 50th birthday on New Year's Eve.

He wrote on his Facebook page: "Oh well! Happy new year to everyone and a happy 50th birthday to me. Half a century. Where did all those years go! Six and a half hours to go. Fingers crossed I am now officially middle aged!"

Mr Tonkinson and Mr Flatt founded Pinnacle Marketing Communications in 1996. The pair were both electronic engineering graduates.

According to Pinnacle's website, Mr Tonkinson began his career with Lucas Industries in 1983 in an engineering design capacity, before moving into sales and marketing roles for the company's automotive division.

In 1988 he joined Gould Electronics selling test equipment before joining technical PR and advertising agency Lesniak Jones Liddell 1989, where he became the company's media director.

In 1993 he formed Pinnacle Marketing and Design before forming Pinnacle Marketing Communications.

It was understood the crash happened as the family were flying back to their home after a trip to the Isle of Wight. It was thought they intended to land on an airstrip near Stratford-on-Avon.

But they never arrived and a walker raised the alarm after finding wreckage from their blue and white plane in Blackwood Forest, near Basingstoke.

Aviation experts believe Mr Tonkinson may have been trying to make an emergency landing at Popham, due to the weather conditions, when the plane crashed into trees and somersaulted.

The family's large gated home, which includes 30 acres of woodland near a river by the rural village of Cookhill, was quiet today.

Three cars were parked on the drive, including a Mercedes 4x4, which neighbours said Mrs Tonkinson often drove.

On the front lawn, visible from the road, lay two footballs, a set of junior goal nets and a child's wheelbarrow.

Many of the blinds were drawn and Christmas lights were off.

A female neighbour, who declined to be named, described the Tonkinsons as "a lovely couple" and their son as "a nice little boy".

On hearing the news of the deaths, she said it was an "unbelievable tragedy".

The neighbour said she often spoke to Mrs Tonkinson, who would be out walking her black labrador, adding she also had an older daughter who did not live at the house.

She said she had known Mrs Tonkinson for several years as they had their hair and nails done at the same place, and said the couple had been going to the United States just before Christmas.

"She was going to America, she'd never been there before. She was very much in love," she said.

"She used to live in Solihull before moving here. She was a pretty girl, very vivacious, and had her hair and nails done regularly - she was very glamorous.

"She was just pleasant, happy, pretty, slim, tall, blonde hair, nice figure, lovely girl. Her little boy was pretty as well."

The neighbour added that the couple spent "a fortune" making the property and grounds "drop-dead gorgeous" since moving in a few years ago.

"She had everything to live for, this girl," she said.

The neighbour's husband said Mr Tonkinson could sometimes be spotted in the skies around their country home in a bright orange flying machine, which he described as similar to a powered paraglider.