ONE pilot was killed and another parachuted to safety after a mid-air crash between their gliders in North Yorkshire.

The two single-seat aircraft collided as they circled a landing site at Sutton Bank, near Thirsk, at about 4.15pm yesterday.

The body of one of the men was found among the debris of his glider in a field next to the A170.

The second man walked away from the wreckage and an ambulance service spokesman said he had suffered only "a scratch".

Both pilots had taken off from the Yorkshire Gliding Club, which is based at the top of the escarpment.

One nearby resident who witnessed the accident said: "I was driving home from work when I heard this huge crash above me.

"I looked up and saw a plane falling to the ground. I thought it was two pieces of the same glider. One of them had a parachute above it.

"When I got to the scene there were a few of the glider guys going round trying to see what had happened.

"I saw one man dead with his plane and it dawned on me it was two gliders.

"The other man who had parachuted down shouted for help and people went and found him. He was walking wounded. He seemed to be in shock but he was OK.

"It was quite shocking to see it happen."

Debris from the crash was spread over a quarter of a mile and some landed on the A170, which was closed overnight.

Two RAF search and rescue helicopters helped with the search and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance also attended the scene.

A Yorkshire Gliding Club spokesman said both men were visiting pilots and police confirmed they were from outside the county.

The club spokesman said: "The accident has been reported to the Air Accident Investigation Branch and the British Gliding Association, who have begun an investigation into the accident.

"The club would like to thank the (emergency) services for their swift actions."

Yesterday's mid-air collision came just two months after another fatal glider crash at the North Yorkshire beauty spot.

On August 30, glider pilot Barry Thompson, 54, of Langdale, in Bedford, missed the Sutton Bank landing site and spun 50ft down a steep bank. He died on September 19.

In July an instructor from the club, John Russell, 64, crashed on a remote Scottish mountainside. It was 27 hours before he was found and rescued.