Pilot recalls plane crash landing

The pilot crash landed into Lough Neagh

The victim of a plane crash has said he had little or no time to react when the aircraft hit trouble.

Mark Gribben and his girlfriend Shauna had just taken off from the old aerodrome at Toome on Friday evening when their engine failed.

Mr Gribben said they had initially tried to land in a field but were left with no option but to ditch in Lough Neagh.

It landed close to Ballyronan marina in County Londonderry.

Fire, police and lifeboat services attended the scene.

"It was a perfect evening for flying," said Mr Gribben.

"We had been flying for about an hour and we had come back in and landed.

"We checked what time we had... we had enough time to go out for another quick run.

You are always taught to try and find a field to put into, but at 300ft you really don't have a lot of time to work out what you are going to do Mark Gribben

"On climbing out, we probably only reached about 300ft when we heard something different changing tone in the engine and realised then we had lost power.

"You are always taught to try and find a field to put into, but at 300ft you really don't have a lot of time to work out what you are going to do."

He said he did not put in a mayday call as his first thought was to get back down on the ground as soon as possible.

A potential field for an emergency landing was too close, too small and had an electricity cable across it, said Mr Gribben.

"The next thing looming was a hedge or trees - and they didn't look too inviting either.

"We took the next option - which we knew was going to be water - and we went over the top of the trees and down to the edge of Lough Neagh.

"There are a lot of sandbanks around the lough and very luckily we landed in 4ft of water.

"It wasn't a big crash landing - we skimmed down into the water... the impact was minimal."