The light aircraft flattened the home in seconds but the painstaking clean-up, which began yesterday, could take months.

Crowds gathered to watch the three-tonne wreckage of the plane being hoisted above the roof of the house it crashed into.

It was lifted over the end terrace in West Street, Shoreham, in little more than a couple of minutes by a 100ft crane.

Just yards away from a busy railway line it was swung round in mid air and dropped in the car park of the parish centre opposite the house.

A cable attached to the tail of the plane snagged on a tree but was quickly freed.

Carla Muncaster, 34, was in a crowd of about 100 people who watched the spectacle from behind barriers in West Street.

She said: "I spotted the crane as I was driving through town and wanted to come and see what was happening.

"It was very dramatic to see it being lifted above the rooftops. I was surprised how small the plane was."

Pilot Donald Campbell escaped serious injury after his plane dropped out of the sky and crashed on to the roof of the house on Monday.

The impact sent debris hurtling into the home of Helen Monahan, who had left only minutes earlier to collect her two sons from school.

The nose cone ended up in a pond and the left wing was almost sheared off.

Mrs Monahan, 36, was among those who watched the wreckage being hoisted above her ruined home.

Despite no fuel being left in the tanks, emergency services were on hand with foam to smother flames in case the wreckage caught fire. Electricity to the railway tracks was cut off during the operation.

Air accident investigators unbolted the right wing from the fuselage to take the plane to Farnborough.

They will try to find out why the twin engines of the Piper Seneca cut out, sending it plummeting to the ground.

Adur Council emergency planner John Rodway said the authority had planned to stage a mock plane crash in the town centre in October to test emergency procedures.

He said: "There are a lot of aircraft movements above the town centre. On a busy weekend there are probably more around Shoreham Airport than Gatwick."