FIREfighters had to cut microlight pilot Steve Laver from his aircraft yesterday after it crashed through a barn roof at Clench Common.

His passenger, understood to be a teenager taking a flying lesson, was thrown clear as the two seater craft plunged through the asbestos sheet roof and into the ground.

It's understood the passenger's injuries were less serious than those of the pilot, who was airlifted to the Great Western Hospital at Swindon.

The passenger was taken by road ambulance to the same hospital.

Both men were conscious and were able to speak to other flyers who went to their aid, including Graham Slater who runs the Clench Common Flying Club. Experienced pilot Chris Bradford, of Barrow Close, in Marlborough, was standing by his own aircraft a few feet from the barn when Mr Laver was bringing his microlight into land.

Mr Bradford said: "It was on its landing approach when it hit severe turbulence."

He said he was not watching the fabric-winged Pegasus aircraft as it initially approached the landing strip from the south east intending to land into the wind.

Mr Bradford said: "I heard a change in the engine sound and I looked to see it heading for the barn."

He said the aircraft had been turned 90 degrees by the turbulence.

Mr Bradford and his wife Kay, a nurse at Savernake Hospital, rushed to assist the injured men together with Julian Leak, 15, from Hungerford, who had been waiting to go up.

Julian, who is learning to fly, said: "It went straight through the roof into the ground."

He said both men were conscious and were able to talk to their rescuers.

The trapped flier remained in his aircraft until fire crews arrived to cut him free with hydraulic cutters.

Dr Jonathon Glover from the Marlborough Medical Practice assisted paramedics treating the injured men.

Because of the asbestos hazard from the shattered roofing sheets, firefighters had to wear masks and once the rescue was over their uniforms were bagged up to be decontaminated.

Mr Bradford said there had been a lot of turbulence yesterday and he could see the pilot struggling with the controls in a bid to turn the aircraft away from the barn and back towards the landing strip.

He said: "There was no question of pilot error or anything like that.

"It appears that it was just a freak gust of wind that caught him as he came in to land."

An inspection team from the Civil Aviation Authority was yesterday expected to visit the scene and examine the crashed aircraft before preparing a full report on the crash.