A PILOT and his two passengers had a lucky escape after the nose wheel of their plane failed to lower as they were coming into land at Bournemouth Airport yesterday evening.

The twin-engined executive jet orbited the runway and then made a controlled crash landing, damaging the Cessna Citation’s undercarriage.

But amazingly the occupants of the private aircraft walked away from the scene unscathed.

Six fire engines and two ambulances rushed to the site as a precaution.

The drama was witnessed by Victoria deCandole, who works in sales and marketing at Bournemouth Flying Club. She praised the pilot’s skill.

She said: “The nose wheel hadn’t come down. The pilot orbited the plane for a bit and eventually decided to land it at the end of the runway.

“It was incredible. They are so lucky.

“The skill of the pilot was amazing. There aren’t so many people that could have done such a good job.

“The emergency services attended, just in case, but the pilot came out of the door and was fine. There were very lucky not to receive serious injuries.”

She added she believed there were another two people on board who also alighted from the aircraft.

An airport spokesman said the runway was closed for about half an hour and a Ryanair flight diverted to Bristol while the stricken plane was towed away.

He added: “Emergency services were on stand-by, as a precaution, and the pilot did not suffer any injury.”