A FLYING instructor and pupil survived and were located after crashing at more than 100mph in a training flight in North Yorkshire.
Both badly injured, the 55-year-old instructor and his student used a mobile phone to call for help after their Cessna aircraft was destroyed in the crash.
They were beginning to suffer from exposure when they were rescued late on a winter’s night about four hours after the crash in a remote area at Ingleborough, the report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.
The plane, on a night cross-country navigation training flight, had gone around 25 degrees off course, with the instructor admitting he made a mistake about their whereabouts.
They took off from Blackpool airport on the evening of March 21 and flew into rising ground at a speed of 90 knots (103.5mph).
Using the mobile, they contacted air traffic control at Blackpool, and rescue teams, including a Sea King helicopter, were alerted.
Eventually a cave rescue team and a mountain rescue team using search dogs located the wreckage and the two crew. Both were wearing denim jeans and shirts, and the instructor had on a “relatively thick” jacket.
They were carried from the rescue scene on stretchers and taken to hospital.
The AAIB said: “It was fortuitous that the crew had a mobile phone with them and were able to call for help from their remote accident site.
“The crew were both seriously injured but the outcome could have been worse.”
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