Cannabis might have affected the judgement or handling of a pilot in a light aircraft crash, which involved a convicted drug smuggler on day release from prison.

The finding comes in a report from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) into the crash on February 23 this year which left a Cessna 172M Skyhawk wrecked on Farthing Common, near Hythe.

The report does not go into any further detail about cannabis but concludes that: "The possibility that cannabis may have impaired his (the pilot's) judgement and/or handling of complex tasks cannot be excluded."

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