A Piper Cherokee burns furiously after crash-landing in Alderney on Sunday. All four people on board managed to get out and the worst injury was a broken leg. (Picture by Simon O’Gorman, 0831384)

DRAMATIC details emerged yesterday about how four people escaped from a burning plane that crashed in Alderney.

Firefighter Mike Franklin and his son, Aaron, saw the Piper Cherokee PA32 light aircraft crash land in a field and end up just 40 metres from the edge of a cliff in the Voueme region of the island on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Franklin, 38, from Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, watched in horror as the plane swayed out of the sky after stalling at about 300ft. ‘We were sat on a bench looking at the rocks when we saw the plane come across,’ he said.

‘It looked as though it was heading for the airport, but it veered sharply to the left and went down. There was then a huge bang and lots of black smoke.’

Mr Franklin ran through brambles and nettles to get to the burning aircraft.

‘All four passengers had got out. One of the men was OK and he carried a woman out who had injured her leg. I helped the other woman across the field and got everyone away from the fuel. The pilot’s face was smashed in, but they were all alive and OK.

‘I got them all to the side of the field, did a quick assessment and called 999, but I couldn’t get through. It was frustrating as I was the one person who could tell the emergency services exactly what was going on.’

Mr Franklin has worked for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue for 19 years.

Pilot Alan Radcliffe, 59, and his wife Pam, 57, were discharged from hospital on Sunday evening after suffering minor injuries.  Katie Farrell, 40, suffered a broken leg and was accompanied to Guernsey’s Princess Elizabeth Hospital by the co-pilot, who was uninjured and has not been named.

Mr and Mrs Radcliffe, from Shropshire, confirmed they were all right yesterday but declined to be interviewed.