A plane which did a pancake landing due to a jammed undercarriage was brought down by a bird, an official report has concluded.

On June 19, a Yak 52 flown by Tim Boxall, 46, was approaching Headcorn Aerodrome prior to landing.

But on selecting the undercarriage down, the left wheel stayed put and refused to come down and lock.

Mr Boxall flew around for a while to try to burn off fuel and made unsuccessful attempts to get all three wheels down.

Eventually, he decided to do a wheels-up landing in the long grass next to the runway followed by fire engines. Mr Boxall, who lives in Headcorn and was unhurt, subsequently found a large bird, possibly a seagull, embedded in the gear uplock mechanism.

An Air Accidents Investigation Bureau report has concluded that the bird had probably struck the aircraft as Mr Boxall did a low flypast prior to selecting landing gear down. He told investigators he had not been aware of any birds.