A MAN has described the moment he rushed to the scene of a plane crash and dragged a passenger to safety.
Demolition worker Paul Ferby was working at Cotswold Airport in Kemble when he saw a light aircraft crash land and overshoot the runway around 10.30am on Thursday.
The plane - believed to be a Piper Cherokee - smashed through the perimeter fence and careered across the busy A429 into a ditch.
Paul ran to the scene, pushed down a windshield with another bystander and managed to get both the pilot and his passenger out.
Fearing an explosion, he ran back to his work lorry to grab a fire extinguisher.
"I don't know what I was thinking at that moment," said Paul, who lives in Cheltenham.
I've just been sent video footage of Paul Ferby helping passengers escape the aircraft which crashed in Kemble on A429 yesterday morning at Cotswold Airport.
— Alice Knight (@_aknighty) August 5, 2022
You can see Paul in the black and blue with the shaved head: pic.twitter.com/4SfN1l3DNq
"You just switch off, it's one of those moments when you just try to help as much as you can.
"My first concern was that it was going to go up in flames with them trapped in there."
“I thought the whole thing was going to catch fire"
He continued: "There was fuel all over the road and it was still leaking out.
"A woman arrived at the same time as me and I asked her to call the police and asked other drivers to move their cars back.
"The airport fire crew then turned up and I left them to it."
Video footage shows how the plane narrowly missed hitting two stationary aircraft as it left the runway on landing.
Paul said it was lucky that the A429 was clear at the time.
"We were very lucky, I don't know what could've happened," he said.
"I thought the whole thing was going to catch fire."
The pilot and passenger were taken to hospital as a precaution but were not badly injured.
Cotswold Airport said its fire crew attended instantly and that other ground staff helped the pair.
South Western Ambulance Service, Wiltshire Police and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch attended the scene near Rapid Racking and Oaksey Garage.
The two on board were taken to hospital by ambulance for checks - one was taken to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, the other to Gloucestershire Royal.
The Kemble road was closed in both directions for a number of hours to allow the clean-up of debris with emergency services having to use water hoses to remove fuel from the road.
Cotswold Airport was closed for the day afterwards and the airport posted on Facebook: "Our heartfelt thanks go to the emergency services. Both passengers are okay."
Pictures from the scene
“Thankfully no one was seriously injured or killed," say police
PC Paul Brewster from Wiltshire Police said: “The A429 is likely to be closed for some hours to allow investigators from the Air Accident Investigation Branch to attend the scene and for the carriageway to be made safe.
“Thankfully no one was seriously injured or killed.
“We are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed this incident or who may have dash cam footage to contact us.”
A spokesperson for South Western Ambulance Service said: "We sent two double-crewed land ambulances, an operations officer, a rapid response vehicle, a critical care car and an air ambulance.
"We have conveyed one patient to Great Western Hospital and one patient to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, both by land ambulance."
If you have any more information call Wiltshire Police on 101 quoting log 109 and incident date 04/08.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here