Dales plane crash accident report released (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Dales plane crash accident report released

9:00pm Wednesday 19th October 2011 in Ingleton news By Kate Proctor, Reporter

A FLYING instructor has admitted that ‘human error’ was responsible for a light aircraft crashing into a remote Dales hillside at 100mph.

The high-speed smash, just half-a-mile from the summit of Ingleborough, happened when the plane veered 25 degrees off-course during a night-time training flight.

Both the instructor and trainee pilot escaped with their lives, but were suffering from serious injuries and exposure when found by rescuers.

A report released by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) said instructor Adrian Smith, 55, from Blackburn, believed the plane was flying over low ground when it hit the mountain in darkness, at around 8pm on March 21.

The report ruled the accident was down to ‘classic human error’, and both the instructor and the 31-year-old trainee had been lucky to survive.

Mr Smith, a senior traffic controller at Blackpool Airp-ort, had assumed the lights he could see below him were those of Ingleton, when it was actually Settle, which has terrain rising to the north west.

The report said that the trainee pilot, who had 60 hours’ flight experience, was told to descend to ‘gain more ground visibility’ before the small Cessna plane crashed into Ingleborough.

Mr Smith and his pupil had set off on a night cross- country navigation training flight in good visibility earlier that evening.

After reaching Clitheroe, he described the leg as a ‘black hole’, but could not ascertain whether this was because they were in cloud.

From this point the instructor had limited rec-ollection of the flight.

And the student could remember nothing after losing consciousness when they crashed.

Using a mobile phone, they called emergency services who dispatched a Sea King helicopter, which found them at 11.30pm.

But the helicopter could not land due to fog.

Members of Clapham Cave Rescue Team found the pair on foot at around 1am and stretchered them off the mountain to hospital, where they were treated for broken ankles, fractured ribs, and facial injuries.

They were also said to be suffering from exposure.

Both were only wearing denim jeans and shirts, although the instructor had on a “relatively thick” jacket.

“It was fortuitous that the crew had a mobile phone with them and were able to call for help from their remote accident site,” conc-luded the AAIB report.

“The crew were both seriously injured, but the outcome could have been worse.”