Updated: THE pilot of a glider that crash-landed in a North Yorkshire field was left trapped in the wreckage for an hour and a half while emergency services tried to find the site.

The man, who is 65 and from Sussex, called police from his mobile phone after the aircraft came to rest in a hedge next to a track at Appleton Grange Equestrian Centre, Appleton Wiske, near Northallerton, at about 3.50pm yesterday.

Police and fire crews were initially unable to locate the scene of the crash because the glider’s navigation system was lost on impact.

A full-scale search of the local area was conducted by emergency service teams, but it was a member of the public who found the glider and pilot just before 5pm.

The pilot suffered a suspected fractured ankle and was taken by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

He had landed in a small field next to the equestrian centre, but was hidden from the view of the road by a tall hedge.

Joanne Garnett, who runs the centre, said she had no idea anything had happened until the air ambulance came in to land at the field. “We were in the back field working with the horses when all of a sudden we heard the helicopter, which came as a bit of a shock,” she said.

No details about the pilot have been released by police, but it is thought that he was travelling to Durham Tees Valley Airport after taking off from Sutton Bank, near Thirsk.