AN injured glider pilot organised his own rescue after he crash-landed - by using his mobile phone.

The 32-year-old was trapped in the wreckage when he crash-landed in an isolated cornfield near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, so he promptly rang 999 for help.

An ambulance and motorcycle paramedic were mobilised from York, but initially they could not find the man.

They eventually found him after two hours as they sounded sirens and the downed pilot guided them to his location.

He was treated at the scene, then taken on to the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, with neck and back injuries.

The Wolds Gliding Club, at Pocklington, is hosting the week-long British National Gliding Championships and spokesman Andy Melville said the man was racing again the following afternoon.

He said: "A cornfield causes gliders to decelerate quickly and he jarred his back.

"Pilots are always taught in these situations not to move if you think you have hurt your back. It was not an accident, it was an incident, and he took a sensible precaution."

The chief flying instructor at York Gliding Club, Mike Cohler, said taking a mobile phone was a sensible precaution for all glider pilots.

He said landing gliders in fields was not uncommon and pilots often used mobile phones to contact support teams.