A pilot and his passenger from Bucks had to be freed from the wreckage of their plane after a disastrous crash landing.

The horror incident happened on February 12 this year as the 2014 built Vans aircraft – registration G HCCF – owned by Stephen Maxwell Ernest Solomon of Harvest Hill in Wooburn Common, touched down at Old Sarum airfield in Wiltshire.

Mr Solomon was travelling in the front seat as passenger and the tiny plane was being flown from the rear seat by the 59-year-old former instructor who had taught him to fly and who had 4,310 hours flying experience.

Both men were initially trapped upside down in the cockpit after the aircraft “flipped” on to its back during the landing.

Several bystanders rushed over to help and managed to raise one of the wings to allow the pair to crawl out through the broken roof.

The pilot later said that he considered he should have flown the aircraft from the front seat where he would have had full access to all the controls.

When flying from the back seat he had to ask the passenger to carry out the braking when they landed because brake pedals were not accessible from the rear seat.

The incident was revealed in an Air Accident Investigation Branch report published last week. The report says that both the pilot and owner Mr Solomon told investigators that the landing attempt that resulted in the crash should not have been attempted.

The report said: “In retrospect, the pilot and the passenger/owner both assessed that it had not been appropriate to attempt ‘short field’ landings on the uphill section of Runway 06 where there is a surface undulation, especially in view of the soft condition of the grass surface.”

The report says that the pilot had told investigators that he had turned off the fuel and electrics in the plane immediately when it came to rest.

It continues: “Then he released his seat belt, although he later wished he had kept his belt fastened for longer, because he had to support his own body weight and clear pieces of the canopy while he was upside down.

“Several bystanders approached the aircraft and, in response to the pilot’s shouted instructions, they raised one of the wings. This allowed the passenger and the pilot to crawl out through the broken canopy.”