Pilot is praised after emergency landing in field

A PILOT was forced to perform an emergency landing in a field near St Columb just minutes after taking off from Newquay Cornwall airport.

One witness heard "pops" from the engine as the four-seater Cessna 182 flew low over Talskiddy at around 1.45pm on Friday.

Cornwall's air ambulance helicopter was scrambled to the scene amid fears the aircraft had crashed.

It later emerged the pilot managed to slam the brakes on and stop just metres in front of a stone wall close to Pennatillie Farm.

Phil Ellery, 45, whose family home lies across the valley from the field, said that he and his wife Pippa had initially feared the worst. He said Pippa heard the sounds of an engine misfiring before seeing the plane lurch into view.

He said: "My wife just shouted to me, 'a plane's crashed'. She saw it come down but then we didn't know if it was a crash landing or a controlled one. It looked like it had crashed from the angle we saw it.

"We were concerned it may be serious, so we phoned the emergency services immediately. Our 12-year-old daughter Katie got a bit worried by it all too. The engine just seemed to lose all power."

Mr Ellery said his next door neighbour, a fast response paramedic, received a call and they directed her to the site.

"We drove out there and it wasn't until we got up close that we could see people had climbed out, which was a huge relief," he said.

"There appeared to be a pilot and two passengers. They seemed a bit embarrassed to have caused all this. They said they were fine. The cover of the engine was off and they were tinkering around."

Mr Ellery said it was lucky the cold weather had hardened the ground to make landing easier.

An airport spokesman confirmed the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing "shortly after its departure from the airfield having reported engine trouble to air traffic control".

However, she said that there had been only one person on board.

"The aircraft landed safely and the one person on board, the pilot, suffered no injuries," she said.

Source:  http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk