A student pilot was airlifted to hospital today after ejecting from a £5 million RAF training jet that crashed into pieces in north Wales.

He was believed to be flying alone when he used the ejector seat to escape, and the jet crashed in the small Mona airfield in the middle of Angelsey island.

The jet, built by BAE Systems, measures approximately 35ft by 35ft and has been used as a training model for 31 years. It is similar to the aircraft used by the Red Arrows.

The model which crashed is based at RAF Valley in north Wales, the busiest military airfield in the UK. The airport is the hub of RAF flight training and home to local search and rescue teams.

Dennis Morris, 68, who lives near the airfield, said he saw the pilot lying motionless in a field. “He looked quite badly injured and he wasn’t moving," he said.

“I heard the crash - it sounded like a horrendous car crash but I knew what it was straight away. I looked out of the window and saw a person lying, obviously injured, in the field.

“The plane was in two very badly damaged pieces, with bits scattered all around. The ejector seat was in a tree.”

A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Service said the male pilot was later airlifted to Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor.

He said no details were available about the condition of the man, whose name has not yet been made public, but it was not believed to be life-threatening.

Squadron Leader Mark Byrne, a spokesman for RAF Valley, said the reason for the crash was unknown.

“We will not speculate about the cause of the accident as an investigation will be carried out to establish what has happened,” he said.

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