Updated: A PILOT from North Yorkshire had a lucky escape when his light aircraft suffered engine failure and narrowly missed hitting overhead power lines before crashing in a field.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has launched an inquiry into the incident, which happened at Sherburn Aero Club shortly before 12.10pm yesterday.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance was called to the airfield, in Lennerton Lane, Sherburn-in-Elmet, but the pilot walked away from the plane, which was owned by the club, uninjured.

Flight centre manager Mike Butler said: “He had a very lucky escape. The aircraft was on the final approach when the engine failed.

“He just missed the power lines at the end of the runway and landed in a field adjacent to one of the other runways. The aircraft flipped on its back, but our rescue teams managed to get the pilot out safely and he is uninjured.

“If he had hit the power lines, it would not have been a happy ending – it just doesn’t bear thinking about.

“He did the right thing and followed the training he received for how to land in the event of engine failure.”

The pilot, who was flying solo and has not been named, was checked by paramedics from the Air Ambulance, but did not need hospital treatment.

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue also attended the scene to make the area safe and keep people away from the aircraft.

A spokeswoman for the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said: “We have been notified about the incident and we are investigating by correspondence.”

She said she could not release further details about the aircraft or pilot.

In August 2005, another pilot from Sherburn Aero Club had an equally lucky escape when his Cherokee turbo fixed-wing aeroplane crash-landed at the airfield.

Father-of-two Chris Burton, then 55, was coming into land after a social trip to the Isle of Wight, when his landing gear failed to drop.

He flew around Sherburn-in-Elmet for an hour doing every textbook manoeuvres in an attempt to drop the wheel and burn off fuel – and finally ended up landing on the aircraft’s rear wheels.

In May 2005, another two pilots walked away uninjured after their Robinson R22 two-seater helicopter also crashed at Sherburn Aero Club.