Crew rescued after jet crash

The Tornado aircraft was from RAF Marham

An eyewitness who saw an RAF Tornado aircraft crash into the Humber estuary praised the crew for ditching their plane away from built-up areas.

Two crewmen were rescued after they ejected from the fighter bomber as it plunged into the river near Brough, east Yorkshire, at about 1450 BST.

The pair ejected after a Mayday call. A spokesman for the RAF said the two airmen, a pilot and navigator, had been taken to Lincoln Hospital for treatment.

Chris O'Connell, who saw the incident, said: "It looked as though the pilot was making an attempt to get it into the water - if that is what the pilot was doing then they really are heroes."

A Humberside Police spokeswoman said both men were in a "reasonable state of health and not seriously injured".

The crew members were taken to Lincoln Hospital

A Humber coastguard spokesman confirmed that the wreckage of the plane had been located off Brough.

An investigations team from the Ministry of Defence(MoD) has been attending the scene, but looks unlikely to make much progress until Saturday.

An MoD spokeswoman said: "With dimming light and tides it is unlikely that much can be done to salvage the craft until Saturday.

"We know exactly where the aircraft is, but it is not like dealing with a crash site on land.

Police divers

"The two crew members are likely to be discharged from hospital on Saturday."

She said the plane was carrying dummy warheads. Environment Agency staff were also on site, particularly to check the plane's fuel load did not cause a problem.

Police divers are searching for debris from the crash impact.

Humberside Police has appealed to local people to report any debris washed up on the riverbank. No wreckage from the plane is believed to have fallen on land.

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford said: "The crew will only have had two or three seconds before deciding to pull the handle to eject."

Builder Malcolm Burke said he was working at his home in Welton, near Brough, when he heard a loud bang.

He said: "It heard it (the plane) go over. Then I heard the bang. I turned round and saw the pilot and navigator coming down with parachutes. You see the figures hanging from the parachutes.

"We live about a mile away from the river and I didn't see the plane hit the water because it was obscured by trees."

Two dinghies

Mr Burke said he believed the village was on a regular flightpath and it was normal to have three or four planes flying over every day.

He said it seemed the pilot may have deliberately planned to ditch his aircraft in the river, and avoid the villages on either side.

Mr O'Connell saw the plane come down

The Humberside Police helicopter was scrambled, and the local coastguard and two RAF rescue helicopters, from bases at Leconfield and Wattisham, were called to the scene.

The Tornado, on a training flight from RAF Marham, Norfolk, came down near Brough, four miles upriver and close to a disused airfield.

The pair were located by helicopter just off the north coast of the river.

A police spokesman said: "The helicopter traced two dinghies. One had one of the casualties in it.

'Drifting in river'

"The other wasn't in his dingy. He was drifting off down the river. Air sea rescue then attended. They winched the man in the dingy out of the water.

"Humber Rescue then picked up the gentleman who was drifting down the river and he was passed on to the air sea rescue as well."

The GR4 Tornado came into service in 1989 has a 13.9 metre wing span and is 16.7 metres in length.

It has a crew of two, pilot and navigator, who sit in tandem, one in front of another.