A woman watched her husband fighting to control his plane for an hour after a freak collision with a bird.

What should have been a routine landing at Headcorn Aerodrome turned into an emergency for pilot Tim Boxall, 46, whose wife Tessa watched the drama unfold.

Mr Boxall, an agricultural contractor who lives in the village, was returning to the aerodrome in his 27-year-old Russian-built Yak52 after a visit to a private strip at Hythe last Thursday.

The father of two said: “I selected the undercarriage down but only had two green lights when there should have been three.

“I radioed Headcorn air traffic and told them I had a bit of a problem.”

He did a low fly past where people on the ground, including his wife, could see that the left wheel on the tricycle undercarriage had not come down.

Mr Boxall said: “I had a lot of fuel on board so flew around for about an hour. I tried all sorts of things to get the leg down including putting the two working ones up and down to see if it would free the third one.

“I did a high speed dive from 2,000ft and pulled up with 5.5G to try to force the undercarriage down but that didn’t work either.”

Mrs Boxall: “My first thought was unprintable. I was shocked but he was a lot calmer than I was.”

The aerodrome’s fire crew was scrambled together with firefighters from Maidstone and Ashford.

Eventually, with a strong cross-wind Mr Boxall decided to land to the north of the east-west runway in comparatively long grass which cushioned the landing and helped slow the plane which was shadowed by the fire engines as it slid along.

Watch Manager Mike Gay, the firefighter in charge said: “He did an amazing job. I had to shake his hand.”

On impact, the propeller was badly bent and when Mr Boxall, who has had 20 accident-free years’ flying, climbed out unhurt to inspect the undercarriage, he found the remains of a large bird.

He said: “Bird strikes are not that rare but to have one hit the fairing around the uplock and jam it in the up position is a one-in-a-million.”

The plane will cost thousands of pounds to repair. It will need a new propeller, possibly a new engine and repaired undercarriage before it can take to the skies again.

But Mr Boxall, who leads the Yak Aerobatic Display Team, is determined to be flying again in time for the Headcorn Flying Proms on Saturday, August 23.