TWO pilots from Bedfordshire narrowly escaped injury last Wednesday when the gliders they were flying were involved in a mid-air collision in the skies to the north west of Alton.

The men bailed out above the A339 at Herriard as their aircraft spiralled out of control and hurtled to the ground. One ploughed through electricity power cables to land in pieces just yards away from the gardens of a newly erected row of housing association properties in Hockleys Lane, and the other crashed through the roof of a barn, attached to a 300-year old cottage next door to the Fur and Feathers public house.

Shocked by what they had seen, but having escaped being hit by the falling debris, local residents swung into action, calling up the emergency services and rushing to make sure the pilots were in one piece. Having landed in nearby fields, both were found to have survived without injury.

Police, ambulance, and fire officers were quickly on the scene, as were members of Lasham Gliding Club - located only a stoneÕs throw away from the crash site - and the British Gliding Association Aircraft accident investigator, John Hoskins.

According to eye witnesses, the two aircraft were turning overhead when their wings touched.

ÒOne spun out of control and took the tail fin off the other and they both hurtled to the ground,Ó said Emma George, who was out in the garden when she heard the gliders circling above and witnessed the collision.

She, like the other residents in Hockleys Lane, had only moved in three weeks before and couldnÕt believe what they were witnessing.

ÒIt was terrifying. Both pilots parachuted out and the gliders came hurtling towards the houses. I thought they were going to fall on us,Ó said Emma, who added: ÒIt was lucky they missed the main Basingstoke road - if they had landed there the results could have been devastating.Ó

Neighbour Karen Pusey was indoors having a cup of tea with her sister-in-law when she heard the crash.

ÒIÕve never been so scared in my life - it was a huge crash, just like thunder,Ó said the young mother, who pointed out that, had it happened just a day earlier, there would probably have been small children playing on the patch of rough land into which some of the wreckage smashed. Fortunately, however, they were back at school.

Her son Michael, 12, was not. A secondary school pupil at Amery Hill, he was not due to return to school until Monday and was in the back garden at the time with his cousin, Matthew.

ÒWe really thought the gliders were going to come down on us. It was really scary,Ó he told The Herald.

Patricia Stratton, who has lived in the cottage opposite for the past 28 years, was cutting her the lawn when she heard what she thought was a hot air balloon overhead.

ÒI looked up and saw the wings of a glider spiralling down. It was really frightening,Ó said Mrs Stratton who had witnessed two crashes before - one when a glider came down and another when an old Provost aircraft ran out of fuel and fell out of the sky - Òbut nothing like this,Ó she said.

Just down the road, neighbour Owen White, 76, had been sitting at home, peaceably watching cricket on television when the impact of the glider hitting the roof outside almost made him jump out of his skin.

ÒIt was reminiscent of wartime,Ó said Mr White whose first instinct was to go out and investigate. What he found was a glider, with tail suspended and nose buried in the roof of the barn adjoining his cottage.

ÒI am a bit old to climb up on the roof and I didnÕt know if the pilot was trapped inside, so I did the only thing possible and dialled 999,Ó he said.

Mr WhiteÕs daughter-in-law, Debbie, was on the way to pick up her daughter from school when she saw neighbours rushing towards Forge Cottage and feared the worst.

ÒThank God it wasnÕt the house,Ó she told The Herald.

A senior gliding instructor from Lasham had been in the air himself when the accident happened. He told The Herald that the two pilots had been racing on a long-distance flight from Dunstable and were using Alton as a turning point. They had misjudged the manoeuvre, got too close and clipped wings.

Having bailed out, he said, the pilots, were Òshaken but unhurtÓ and were whisked away to the clubhouse at Lasham airfield where they were treated for shock.

They will now face an investigation into how exactly they managed to knock one another out of the sky above a Hampshire village and live to tell the tale.

As for the residents of Herriard, having lived through the excitement, on Wednesday night thoughts turned to the practicalities of having to manage without electricity - Mr White was without his television but worse still, the ladies of the WI had to forego their monthly meeting.