A COUPLE out for a walk stumbled across this carnage in a field near their home.

Rachel Trusler was shocked to make the discovery when out for a stroll with her husband on Sunday morning.

A pilot escaped unscathed after whirling through the sky and crash landing the smoking plane in a field.

The man thought to be in his 30s took off from Shoreham Airport but his light aircraft landed in a heap minutes later after crashing through trees, a fence, a hedge, and killing three sheep.

The DA 40D Diamond Star plane also narrowly missed a pair of dog walkers as it hit the ground in a field behind the Lyons Farm Retail Park, off Lambley’s Lane, near St Mary’s Church in Sompting.

The couple alerted emergency services but as fire crews from Shoreham and Worthing arrived at 5pm on Saturday they found the man had already walked free from the wreckage totally uninjured.

Firefighter Andy Hockley, of Worthing Station, helped to make the scene safe and make sure no fuel was leaking.
He said: “We took fire extin- guishers to the scene and offered first aid but everyone was OK, just a bit shaken up. “We’re told the pilot took off from Shoreham Airport but lost power as he flew over the sea, so he headed to the nearest green fields.

“He did a pirouette in the sky and crashed through a hedge, unfortunately killing three sheep.

“We think they didn’t hear him as he glided into the field. The plane was badly damaged at the
back, the wheels broken and one of the wings snapped but he got off scot free.”

Mrs Trusler, who lives near St Mary’s Church in Sompting, saw the plane circling on Saturday and discovered the scene in the field yesterday.

She said: “I expected it would have been moved overnight and did not think we would come across it. It is very unusual – you do not expect to see a plane parked up in a field with sheep around it. “I am just very grateful the pilot landed without injury.”

Film star Ford lucky to be alive after smash

THE Sompting plane crash came days after actor Harrison Ford miraculously survived a plane crash. The 72-year-old Star Wars and Indiana Jones star suffered only minor injuries when the 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR he
was flying crashed last Thursday. He was praised by the authorities for picking a golf course as the best spot for landing after clipping a tree shor tly after take-off from Santa Monica airpor t in the US.