Pilot built crash plane in garden

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The plane was built in a back garden over 10 years

A pilot who escaped death when his light aircraft crashed on landing in County Durham, had built the plane himself, it has emerged.

Bill Knott, 73, from Inverness, spent 10 years constructing the aircraft from a kit in his back garden.

He and a co-pilot, also in his 70s, were pulled from the two-seater Vans RV aircraft, when it flipped on landing at an airfield in Fishburn on Saturday.

Mr Knott suffered back injuries. The co-pilot was only slightly hurt.

Mr Knott was in control of the plane, which had left North Weald airfield in Essex and was due to refuel in Fishburn on its way to Inverness.

Mr Knott began construction of the plane in 1997

But as it landed at Morgansfield air strip, the aircraft flipped on to its roof.

Fire crews pulled the pair from the plane and Mr Knott was taken by air ambulance to North Tees Hospital in Stockton, where he remains in a comfortable condition.

Speaking to the BBC when the plane was completed in January 2007, Mr Knott, a grandfather of eight, said he took on the project after his wife told him to take up a hobby.

He said he decided to build a plane after always being interested in aircraft.

He added: "There's 13,000 rivets in the plane and you are a little bit nervous that you may have done something incorrect."

An Air Accident Investigation Branch inquiry is under way.