Helicopter in emergency landing

A pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after an RAF helicopter suffered a systems failure during a test flight over Shropshire.The pilot, from RAF Shawbury, brought the Griffin helicopter down in a field near Crudgington Creamery yesterday, at about 4.45pm, in response to an on-board warning.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing smoke coming from the back of the helicopter before it touched down safely in the field off the A442.

Neither of the two pilots were injured in the incident and engineers were quickly on scene to repair the problems before it was flown back to the north Shropshire airbase.

RAF Shawbury spokesman Squadron Leader Martin Locke said today: "A warning light came on which required the pilot to make an emergency landing, which is standard procedure.

"There were two crew members. There was no risk to any persons or property. It was a Griffin helicopter on a test flight.

"Everything was completely under control. It was a minor system failure, it could have been a spurious fault."

Mr Locke said engineers were sent to fix the helicopter and it was returned to RAF Shawbury by 7pm.

"We are grateful to the owner of the field for his assistance," he said. "He made sure the engineers could get on to his field to recover the helicopter."

The swift and successful response to the emergency bodes well for the defence flying school at RAF Shawbury, in north Shropshire, as Prince William is due to start his flying training at the base next month.

He will be the first member of the royal family to be trained at the airbase and is expected to spend about five weeks fulfiling his ambition of learning to fly helicopters.