"He said they aimed to put it in the Helford River but we saw it heading away from the river."
Why the river and pollute a water course?
The Helford River is in fact the name of the arm of the sea which cuts across the Lizard Peninsula almost as far as Culdrose, so not a river as such. Part of it is known as Frenchman's Creek, made famous in the Daphne du Maurier novel.
At least there were no comments like "Bravely steered away from the local primary school"
True, but the local facebook page had a comment congratulating the pilots on crashing their aircraft in an empty field!