EMBSAY farmer Michael Wallbank feared he was going to be faced with a scene of horror when he saw a light aircraft come down on his land on Sunday evening.

Instead he found the pilot and passenger shaken but unhurt and the Maule aircraft in which they had been forced to land generally unscathed.

A specialist crane from Northern Installations was used to recover the single engine plane from the field at Mr Wallbank's Intake Farm on Monday afternoon.

The plane, which is privately registered, was returning to Oxenhope Aerodrome near Keighley when the oil pressure gauge showed a drop.

Rather than risk a complete engine failure, the pilot, who has not been named, looked for an open patch of ground where he could land safely.

After rejecting Skipton Golf Club's 12th fairway, the plane banked and headed towards Intake Farm and a newly cut field.

Mr Wallbank said: "We've had hot air balloons come down in that field before, practically on the same spot, but this is the first plane.

"I honestly thought I'd find them dead but when we got here they were both stood outside the plane," he added.

Mr Wallbank had been working on some farm machinery at an adjacent farm when he saw the plane circling.

"It was going round and obviously looking for somewhere to land and then it just came down in the field," he told the Herald.

The recovery operation involved a very rare crane.

There are only two in the United Kingdom and both are owned by Northern Installations.

The Halifax-based firm usually uses them for moving escalators although they have been used to transport helicopters and other light aircraft before.

A spokesman for the company said it did not expect to have to use one to get an aeroplane out of a farmer's field.

A report on the forced landing has been sent to the Department of Transport's Air Accident Investigation Branch.

Picture by Craven Herald photographer Stephen Garnett.