by Thom Morris

tmorris@thekmgroup.co.uk

A pilot had a lucky escape when his Second World War plane collided mid-air with another aircraft.

Thousands of people at the Flying Legends display show in Cambridgeshire on Sunday looked on in horror as pilot Rob Davies' P-51 Mustang wing clipped a Douglas A-1 Skyraider.

Mr Davies' plane - dubbed Big Beautiful Doll and which appeared in Saving Private Ryan - plummeted to the ground, forcing Mr Davies to quickly escape by launching his parachute. The other plane managed to safely land with damage to its wing.

Mr Davies, from Woodchurch, who joined the RAF in 1962 as a 15-year-old apprentice, said: "We were displaying at the Imperial War Musuem at Duxford and we were on the run-in to brake for landing when the number two in my element made an error of judgement and instead of going out he pulled in tight and lost sight of me and basically chucked me out of the sky.

"There was this huge bang and I flipped sideways but I managed to draw it level and prepared for bailing out.

"I aimed it at the open farm land but I had no pitch control, meaning I couldn't make it go up and down.

"When it went down it just exploded into little bits."

Mr Davies, who is vice president of Meggitt Defence Systems on Orbital Park, had only just sold the plane two months ago to a German museum who had asked him to continue flying it.

The incident will be investigated by the Air Accident Investigation Branch.