AN experienced pilot who narrowly escaped death when a light aircraft crashed into woods eight months ago has not been in a plane since and still has nightmares about the incident.

Blackburn man John Bridge, 66, spoke of his ordeal as a government inquiry criticised harnesses which failed.

Mr Bridge was a passenger on the Tiger Moth which crashed into Spring Wood, Whalley, in May.

Accident investigators say the plane, piloted by 47-year-old Kevin Handley, of Arkwright Close, Blackburn, failed because ice had formed on the engine.

The inquiry has called for the harnesses, which failed during the crash, to be replaced by more modern devices.

But Mr Bridge, a former engineer and test pilot for light aircraft, said the harnesses had been tested to withstand more serious incidents.

He was cut from the wreckage and airlifted to hospital in the Lancashire Police helicopter and spent two weeks being treated for serious leg and facial injuries as well as a broken rib and pelvis.

Mr Bridge, a widower with two daughters and three grandchildren, said he still had nightmares about the flight and had not been up in a plane since.

He said: "We had an extremely narrow escape and I feel very lucky to have got away with my life. It is remarkable when you think about it because I was trapped and had the plane set on fire I wouldn't be talking to you now."

Mr Bridge said Mr Handley took off from a farm strip and encountered problems at 1,100ft, when the engine began to run roughly and lose power. Mr Handley decided on an emergency landing at a golf course but the engine appeared to recover so he completed a 360 degree turn, when the plane lost power again and crashed into trees.

Mr Bridge went on: "I'm an experienced pilot and recognised the signs. I can remember it. We took the tops off some of the trees, the aircraft cartwheeled, headed for the woods canopy and landed upside down.

"There was petrol everywhere and a hot engine could quite easily have set on fire. I remember thinking my life was hanging in the balance, though I'm an optimist and I didn't think I was going to die."

Officers from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) said a weather report from Blackpool Airport indicated a temperature of 12C that day.

Their report said: "These conditions are favourable for the formation of carburettor icing at cruise power and it was the opinion of the pilot and his passenger that the symptoms of the power loss were consistent with such icing having occurred."

The report also draws attention to the Sutton harnesses which failed in the crash and are banned in some parts of the world.

But Mr Bridge said the harnesses had been tested to withstand incidents far worse by the company who issued the certification for the plane.

The AAIB recommends Sutton harnesses are replaced with modern harnesses.

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