A GLIDER pilot who was rescued after spending a day and a night on a Scottish hillside trapped in the wreckage of his aircraft has met his rescuers.

John Russell, 65, of York, crashed on to a hillside about six miles north of Braemar, in the north of Scotland, in July of last year. He had been taking part in a gliding competition and had taken off from Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire. Mr Russell more than 27 hours trapped in the wreckage of the glider with a shattered left leg and exposed to the wind and rain. With the alert raised by the gliding club, rescue teams scoured the area and Mr Russell was eventually spotted by Tornado bomber crew Squadron Leader Roger Organ and Flight Lieutenant Mark Haley who radioed for help.

Yesterday Mr Russell, who walks with a stick after the accident, watched as the Tornado bomber landed at RAF Leeming before thanking the pilots for saving him.

He said: "It's absolutely wonderful to meet them. I've thought about it an awful lot, also it's very emotional for me because I've got in my mind clearly how I sat for all those hours."

Mr Russell described what it was like to be stranded.

"It was a bit of a long haul, particularly through the night when I didn't have a coat, it was pouring with rain, I was frozen stiff. It was just a bit of an arduous long haul," he said.

The pilots told how they were amazed when Mr Russell waved in response to them waggling their plane's wings and had to fly past twice to make sure he was still alive.

Sqn Ldr Organ said: "It was just a sheer surprise, the two of us were just expecting to find a body. It was a remarkable feat of survival."

Mr Russell told how the pilots flew above him until the rescue helicopter arrived.

Thanking the pilots, he said: "You probably don't appreciate how much it meant to me for you to go round and round me until the helicopter came. It gave me a feeling of well-being and morale. It lifted me so much."

Mr Russell said he had been flying in a two-seater glider since the accident, but did not know if he would fly alone again.