Bi-plane crashes into Poole Harbour, narrowly missing vessels

A plane, carrying a wing-walker, crash landed into the sea during a display as part of Bournemouth Air Festival over the weekend.

CCTV from the Haven Hotel, shared with the BBC, shows the moment that the plane crashes, narrowly missing several boats.

An eyewitness told the BBC how a pilot avoided a “catastrophe” after the plane crashed.

Alan Badenhorst helped rescue the pair from Poole Harbour by pulling them on his boat. The crew suffered minor injuries, Dorset Police said.

He says the pilot seemed to display an “incredible feat of flying”.

Badenhorst had been in a dinghy with his partner and their three young children when he spotted the low-flying aircraft.

“The plane kept getting lower, and lower,” he says. “And then suddenly the plane hit the water and flipped over.”

The family dragged the pilot and a woman from the water into their dinghy. The plane sunk shortly after.

“It was an incredible piece of flying to be able to land in the water between the rocks, our boats, the chain ferry – just amazing,” he says.

He says that after the crash the pilot went under the water to help get his passenger out.

“Had he landed anywhere else it would have been catastrophic… who knows what travesty could have unfolded.

“It was the most surreal experience really. It’s a day the kids will never forget and I don’t think I will either really.”

A crane arrived on Sunday to salvage the plane from the water .

Dorset Police and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch have both confirmed they have launched investigations into the crash.

Video shared by the Independent shows the plane’s recovery.