A pilot has told how he and a student parachuted to safety after their glider was struck by lightning in mid-flight.

The dramatic escape, which took place over Bedfordshire in April, has been detailed in an official accident report just released.

The 45-year-old instructor and his student were at 2,500 feet when the lightning struck their glider with a crack so loud it damaged their hearing.

'Feeling very draughty'

According to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch report, the instructor recalled a very loud bang and then remembered "feeling very draughty".

He also believed he may have momentarily lost consciousness.

On recovering, he felt dazed but slowly became aware "something was seriously amiss".

The instructor said he realised it was "a real emergency requiring unpleasant and decisive action".

With large sections of the air frame of the glider badly damaged, the student, with his hearing impaired, did not realise his dazed instructor was shouting to him to abandon the aircraft.

Fortunately, the student had decided to parachute to safety anyway.

He escaped major injury after landing on the roof of a disused petrol station.

'Breaking his ankle'

The lightning strike had caused "sooting" to the upper part of the instructor's jacket, parachute pack and the hair on the back of his head.

He also managed to parachute out of the stricken glider and came down in a nearby field, breaking his ankle on landing.

One witness, a police officer in the centre of Dunstable, Beds, from where the glider took off, said the lightning crack was probably the loudest sound he had ever heard.

Both men were taken to hospital, with the student able to go home later that day and the instructor going home four days later after surgery on his ankle.