A YOUNG trainee pilot made a promise to his parents that he would support them in their old age and pay for the education of his two younger brothers.

The promise, based on religion and close family ties, was one that Tareq Shaher was never able to keep because, a few weeks later, he died after losing his bearings in cloud and crashing his plane into a Scottish hillside during a solo training flight.

Now Mr Shaher's family is claiming damages of (pounds) 400,000 from the flying college where their son was training when he smashed into Wham Rig Hill, five miles west of Sanquhar in Dumfriesshire, in September, 1993.

The action at the Court of Session is being pursued by his father, Mohammed Shaher, his mother Fayza, and his brother Talal, who live in Bahrain.

The family claims that ''boisterous and immature'' Mr Shaher, then 19, was unsuitable for continued flying training and that the British Aerospace Flying College at Prestwick was negligent in letting him keep flying.

The flying school denies liability and describes Mr Shaher as capable and intelligent trainee with the potential to become a good pilot. The college maintains, however, that Mr Shaher was to blame for his own death because he failed to follow instructions and flew into cloud.

Mr Shaher was training for a commercial pilot's licence under the sponsorship of Gulf Air. On September 15, he had been briefed to fly a Piper Warrior on a cross-country exercise.

He had 89 hours flying time, more than 43 of them solo. He had flown solo for the first time the previous May and had passed two progress tests.

He took off from Prestwick about 2.20pm and an hour later reported to Scottish air traffic control that he was in cloud. He is believed to have become disorientated and at 4.49pm the wreckage of his aircraft was found at Wham Rig Hill. He died from multiple injuries.

His family alleges that the flying school knew that Mr Shaher had shown indiscipline and erratic behaviour and should have stopped his training after, at the latest, 40 hours.

The college says that Mr Shaher had been warned that if he encountered cloud he should turn his plane round and retrace the route he had often flown before. The cloud was visible from at least 15km and could readily have been avoided, but the pilot failed to follow his instructions.

At the point of the crash, he was also 15 nautical miles off track.

Mohammed Shaher, 61, a retired senior manager with Gulf Air, told the court yesterday that Bahrain was a Muslim country where families kept to traditions and religious teachings.

''He knew his brothers were going to have private educations and he promised that he would shoulder the cost of their education. He made that promise to me and his mother. This is normal because a member of the family has an obligation to support the other members of his family.''

Mr Shaher added: ''In our religion, we have an obligation to support needy members of our family. Tareq, by his religion, was required to help his brothers in their education and his mother and father in old age and to provide them with the same standard of living that they have been enjoying.''

The hearing before Lord Wheatley continues and is expected to last eight days.