FORMER colleagues of a distinguished BBC cameraman who died after plummeting from a bridge in Aylesbury have voiced their shock this week.
Ingo Prosser, of Welbeck Avenue in Bedgrove, has been described as one of the corporation’s finest after news of his death spread.
Mr Prosser, who was 61 when he died last Tuesday, helped show the world the atrocities happening in Tiananmen Square in 1989, when he filmed the Chinese army opening fire on student protesters.
The popular cameraman, who also filmed the fall of the Berlin Wall and unrest in Northern Ireland, had attended his retirement party just four days before his death.
Staff at the BBC were ‘dumbfounded’ after Mr Prosser died after falling from the Bourg Walk Bridge last week.
His widow has thanked passers-by who rushed to try to save her husband.
Bob Prabhu, a retired senior cameraman, said Mr Prosser’s death had hit colleagues ‘like a meteorite from outer space’, and added: “We were all so dumbfounded with the manner in which his life concluded.”
Mr Prabhu described his former colleague as ‘one of the finest cameramen of the BBC News’ and said his death had rocked the BBC newsroom.
In the latter years of his career, Mr Prosser had battled against Parkinson’s Disease.
Mr Prabhu said despite his health problems, Mr Prosser had impressed his colleagues with his resilience.
Paying tribute to his friend, Mr Prabhu said: “Ingo as a person was amicable, active, enthusiastic with a very wicked sense of humour.
“He was a self motivated news person with a keen eye for pictures and sound.
“He knew what a TV news story was all about.”
The father of two had left the BBC on March 30, and had been set to spend the Easter weekend in Paris with his wife, Fionnuala.
Mr Prabhu said: “His disability was visible to his colleagues, but he always put on a brave face and never felt sorry for himself.
“He still had the fire in him.”
Former BBC news editor Stephen Claypole described Mr Prosser as ‘one of the best of the cameramen, if not the best’.
He began working for the BBC in the late 1970s, securing a staff job in 1982.
Mr Prabhu said his friend would be best remembered for his work on June 3 1989, when he braved – ‘to the point of madness’ – to stay in Tiananmen Square when the Chinese Army opened fire.
The footage he shot was later scripted by journalists all over the world, and he captured the moment a tank was caught on a barricade and attacked by protestors.
Mr Prabhu said: “That sums up who Ingo was and why the BBC had much faith in him.”
He moved to Aylesbury in 1984.
This week Mrs Prosser said: “I would like to thank the people that helped Ingo after it happened.”
Mr Prosser, who leaves his wife and sons Mark and Donal, died after falling from the bridge at 2.40pm last Tuesday.
Police have said the death is not suspicious.
An inquest has been opened.