TWO friends from Swindon witnessed a light aircraft suffering engine failure and crashing into a field as they took a pleasure flight in a helicopter.

Gavin Major and Neil Ross praised the pilots of both aircraft after all four people onboard miraculously walked away unscathed from the drama.

The pair were on the aerial tour from the Goodwood Festival of Speed when the Robin DR400 making its way to the event crash-landed in a field.

Gavin said: “We were on a pleasure flight which was meant to last 10 minutes and we went up in fine weather. I had the headphones on and I heard ‘mayday, mayday, engine failure’.

“At first I turned to my mate thinking it was us for a minute. Then we saw the light aircraft to our left and it dawned on us what was happening. We told our pilot and he started hovering over it.

“Our pilot circled around the plane until rescuers arrived and we had to leave because we were low on fuel. We were above the plane for about 20 minutes.”

Gavin, from Penhill, and his friend had paid £50 each for the pleasure flight along with four other passengers. They were relieved to spot people on the ground walking away from the plane.

“At first we couldn’t see anyone in the field but then we saw four people getting out,” he said.

“We were in shock really, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.”

The automotive industry workers praised the actions of both pilots during the drama, which took place a few miles from the race circuit near Chichester, West Sussex, on Sunday.

Gavin, 32, said: “Our own pilot was giving clear co-ordinates to the rescuers as he was flying above, he went low enough to try and see road names as we could see access would be difficult to the field.

“It was all a bit hectic but his response was second to none.

“The pilot in the light aircraft brought it down in the field where there was a lot of soft mud and it would have been hard to see the surface and obstacles on the ground.

“It could have been a lot worse.”