A PILOT was fighting for his life in York Hospital today after his glider crash-landed and spun 50ft down a steep bank.

The 56-year-old's glider missed the landing site on Sutton Bank, near Thirsk, and crashed down an embankment yesterday evening.

An RAF rescue helicopter was scrambled from Leconfield Airfield to winch the pilot to safety, after firefighters cut him free from the wreckage of the single-seat, 15-metre Slingsby Dart. He was flown to York Hospital, suffering from head and leg injuries.

Inspector Mike Harvey, of North Yorkshire Police, said last night the pilot was in a critical condition.

Meanwhile, inquiries into the cause of the accident were ongoing.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service said: "The glider appears to have spun over the side of an embankment and fallen 50ft down, at about 7pm."

The spokesman added: "We sent crews from Thirsk, Helmsley, Northallerton and Ripon. We cut the pilot out of the cockpit and he was winched to safety by a Sea King helicopter."

The glider was flying from the Yorkshire Gliding Club's Sutton Bank base. A spokeswoman for the club said she did not wish to comment.

In July an instructor at the Yorkshire Gliding Club, John Russell, 64, crashed in a remote mountainous area of Scotland. It was 27 hours before he was found and rescued.