Aircraft flies into power cables

A plane has flown into power cables and cut electricity to thousands of homes in Oxfordshire.

About 3,500 homes were left without power in the Yarnton area, Southern Electric said.

The light aircraft was able to land safely at Oxford Airport, near Kidlington. No-one was injured.

Police have closed a section of the A4095 near Woodstock where power cables are down, while work to repair the damage is carried out.

Power was restored to the homes affected within two hours and repair work to the cables was being carried out on Wednesday morning.

High voltage

A spokeswoman for Southern Electric told BBC News: "Nothing like this has happened in this area before.

"We're on site at the moment - the priority is getting the cable back up, it's a high voltage cable, 70ft above ground."

She added it was too early to say whether legal action would be taken against the company operating the aircraft.

The plane's operators, Pilot Flight Training, were unavailable for comment.