A TRAINEE pilot and his instructor walked away unhurt after their aircraft crash-landed at a North Yorkshire military base.

The two-seater Tucano trainer crashed on its approach to the runway at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, to the north of York, when its undercarriage failed to come down.

An investigation has now been launched into the incident, which happened at 10.20am on Tuesday at the end of a routine training flight.

The aircraft suffered serious damage as it landed on its belly, slid along the runway and came to rest on grass, but neither of the occupants was injured.

Linton is the home of the RAF’s No 1 Flying Training School – the oldest in the world – and operates a fleet of the turbo-prop Tucano Mark 1 aircraft. It provides basic fast-jet training for pilots of both the RAF and Royal Navy.