A MICROLIGHT was “pulled from the sky” before bouncing across a field and careering into a small plane, an official report has found.

Gordon Wilson’s aircraft was left a crumpled wreck after it plummeted from the skies during the Great North Fly In at Eshott Airfield in Northumberland in September last year.

Now an official report from the Air Accident Investigations Board has found that his £7,000 microlight crashed after it followed a Robinson R22 light helicopter on to the runway.

The 50-year-old father-of-two, who has more than 666 hours’ flight experience, was in the cockpit of a 1996 Mainair Blade microlight with the registration G MZED when it crashed.

The report states: “The approach was good, with the correct speed and approach angle, maintaining a constant distance from the helicopter ahead, until, crossing the threshold, G-MZED was ‘pulled from the sky’ and impacted the ground at a high rate of descent.

“The aircraft bounced across the neighbouring grass runway and collided with a parked EV-97 Eurostar aircraft.”

Mr Wilson was airlifted to hospital following the crash in front of hundreds of aviation fans.

While his passenger, a 30-year-old woman, suffered a broken arm, Mr Wilson, who lives with his wife, Yvonne, 51, a teaching assistant, in Appletree Drive, Prudhoe, Northumberland, escaped with just cuts and bruises after the terrifying accident.

The report said: “The pilot considers that the accident was caused by the microlight’s encounter with the helicopter’s downwash and that he had not been aware of the likely severity of this effect.”

Mr Wilson, who has two sons, Gavin, 25, and Benjamin, 20, was training a 30-year-old female passenger at around 1.45pm on September 22 last year.

But as the pair came into land the flexwing microlight was thrown into a spin by the air currents from a helicopter that had just landed.

The aircraft was a complete write-off after it slammed into the ground and was left a twisted wreck.

Fire crews and ambulance paramedics attended the scene after the crash and a Great North Air Ambulance helicopter was scrambled to the scene to treat the injured.

Speaking at the time, Mr Wilson, an IT trainer at a computer company in Wallsend, North Tyneside, said he was unfazed by the experience and he would continue to take to the skies above Northumberland.

Mr Wilson spent 16 years in the Army training new recruits.

He left the Army in 1994 and re-trained as an IT trainer before studying to gain a BA Hons in Education.

He started his flying career in 1999 after a trial flight at Eshott Airfield.