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http://www.thisisguernsey.co.uk/news/news2.html
A TWO-SEATER plane crash-landed on Little Sark on Saturday. Its occupants escaped unhurt.
Paul and Mary Aston were en route from Jersey to Exeter when, shortly before 4pm, they smelt burning then the engine of their Europa cut out.
Air Traffic Control told them to head for Guernsey, but they knew they would not make it.
They decided instead to land on Sark, which does not have an airfield. Both have private pilot’s licences, but Mr Aston was flying the aircraft at the time.
He was able to set the plane down in a field near La Sablonnerie Hotel, where it crashed into a hedge.
Although shocked, neither lost consciousness in the impact and did not need medical assistance.
Mrs Aston said that all pilots were trained to cope in the event of such an emergency.
‘We knew what was happening and we talked it through,’ she said.
‘We knew we had a better chance of survival if we brought her down on land. At the speed we were travelling the plane would probably have gone nose down if we had ditched in the sea and we might not have got out.’ She added that the incident would not put her off flying again.
From the time the engine stopped the couple, who live in South Devon, had three or four minutes to set the aircraft up for a crash landing.
First on the scene was farmer Philip Perree, who owns the field. He had been digging potatoes in the next field.
‘I saw that its propeller wasn’t working when it flew over and I realised it was going to come down,’ he said.
Mr Perree’s wife notified the emergency services and he went to give assistance.
Sark’s Fire Brigade and Constables were called out and it is understood that the incident will be investigated by the Air Accident Investigation Branch of the Civil Aviation Authority.
It was only the second time in living memory that a plane has come down on the island. The last time was in 1942 during the Second World War.