BEN Lugering died last week, following a road accident. Though he was 80, the death notice in the paper spoke affectionately of all that he had still to live for and of his "many dear and special friends in the North-East."

It still didn't begin, however, to tell the remarkable story of his life, nor suggest the poignancy of his passing.

Bernhardt Lugering was a wartime navigator in the Luftwaffe. On the first two occasions that his plane was shot down, he managed to get back to Germany. On the third he parachuted down over London, was captured and taken to the prisoner of war camp at Harperley, near Crook - the one that may shortly become something akin to a theme park.

Whatever his expectations of incarceration in a hostile country, however, the navigator quickly discovered the warmth and friendship of Co Durham folk, in war as in peace.

Though sent to America on the Queen Mary when the fighting ceased, he returned to Co Durham in 1947, found work in Hamsterley Forest and married Vera Nicholson, whose parents kept Hamsterley post office.

In 1960 the couple moved to Nottinghamshire, though he still cherished his new allies in the North-East. Vera died last year.

Among his closest friends was Ian McDermid, now in Sutton-on-the-Forest near York, though their paths had almost crossed at least twice before finally they met.

Ian had frequently visited Hamsterley Forest in the 1950s whilst a pupil at Hurworth House school, near Darlington, and was also familiar in the west Durham village of Butterknowle, where his father owned the Kino cinema. Ben Lugering and his wife would attend whist drives in the hall next door.

They swiftly became close friends after Ian moved to Doncaster, got a job in retail and discovered that Ben was his area manager.

"He was just a one off, a wonderful man eternally grateful to the Co Durham people whose kindness and sincerity had been so tremendous," says Ian. "They never treated him or his colleagues like prisoners. The reason he stayed in England was entirely down to that, and he returned their affection.

"He had such a fabulous story I always said he should write a book, though he spoke at RAF stations in Lincolnshire and was welcomed with open arms."

Ben also became his friend's best man, devoting part of his speech to why he was proud to consider himself an adopted North-Easterner.

Though he visited his sister in Germany, the man who was shot down three times never flew for 60 years until her 80th birthday last year.

He had been back in Co Durham, seeing friends and working with a BBC crew on a film about Harperley camp, when involved in a head on collision two Sundays ago on a minor road between Hamsterley and Wolsingham.

The Luftwaffe man's final flight was in an air ambulance to Newcastle General Hospital, where he died from multiple injuries two days later.

Incredibly, however, Ben had been in another head on crash in February - after which he wasn't expected to last the night.

"He was in intensive care for two weeks," recalls Ian. "Doctors were so sure he wouldn't come through they gave his watch and ring to his sister."

Ben fought back to full health, returned to his beloved garden and to his friends in two countries. "You just can't take it in, to come through all that and then for lightning to strike twice," says Ian.

"There was something about him that was just different. I still phoned him every week; he always said that he believed someone was looking after him"

The funeral of Ben Lugering, the airman who landed on his feet, takes place at Mansfield crematorium at 3.10pm tomorrow.