A parachute worth £3,000 landed in a garden in Herne Bay town centre after a member of the Tigers Freefall Team ran into difficulties during the air show on Sunday.

Stunned Simon Welsh found the abandoned chute next to his girlfriend’s house in Station Road.

It had been released by a member of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, who was forced to use his emergency parachute after his main chute failed to open properly.

Mr Welsh, 42, was watching the air show on the seafront when he spotted the parachutist in trouble – but it was only when he returned home after the event that he found the chute.

He said: “We were watching the Tigers and one of them had to do some quick thinking as he had a problem with his main chute.

“I saw it flying away after he let it go and I said to my girlfriend that I thought it was getting close to where she lives.

“When we got home, she went into the garden and she found the parachute there.”

Mr Welsh rolled the parachute up and returned it to the air show organisers. It has been sent back to the Tigers who hope to use it again after inspecting it for damage.

Tigers team leader corporal Frank Millerick said the parachutist was able to land safely. He said: “The parachute did not deploy properly.

"It was an awesome show..." - Simon Welsh

“It was not controllable enough to bring it down in the landing arena, so he decided to use the reserve and deployed it successfully, landing nice and safely.”

Tigers bosses have thanked Mr Welsh for returning the chute, sending him a signed poster and team coin.

Mr Welsh – who owns a PR company – praised the organisers of the event.

He said: “It was an awesome show. I have been to hundreds of air shows and that was one of the safest I have been to.

“The BayPromoTeam are a wonderful team who are putting Herne Bay on the map.”