A plane belonging to a north Suffolk flying group was involved in a crash after it overshot a runway and ended up in a drainage ditch.

The Europa light aircraft, which was owned by David Kingsley Lawry, a trustee of the G-JHYS Group in Palgrave, near Diss, was involved in a crash in Laddingford Aerodrome in Kent that saw the plane's propeller, undercarriage and underside damaged.

Details of the crash have been released in an Air Accident Investigation Branch report into the incident which happened on the afternoon on July 11 last year.

The report says the 'into wind approach to the aerodrome involved flying over some trees in conditions that was described as bumpy'.

It adds: 'The pilot reported there was 'quite a bit of turbulence on final approach' and the aircraft landed to the left of the centreline.

'It then continued drifting left and its left wingtip made contact with long grass at the edge of the runway, which yawed it further left until the aircraft was completely off the runway.'

The Europa plane, registration G-JHYS, then entered a drainage ditch and stopped abruptly, causing damage to the propeller landing gear and underside.

The report adds: 'The pilot thought the initial drift was probably caused by the turbulent conditions. He was unable to explain why he could not regain runway heading before the aircraft left the runway.

'Another Europa aircraft, G-IKRK, went off the runway in a similar position some 35 minutes later.'

The report said the 74-year-old pilot of Europa G-JHYS had 465 flying hours experience, including 27 hours in the Europa.

No one else was in the plane.

The light aircraft was made in 2001 and has a one Rotax 914-UL piston engine.

The Civil Aviation Authority describes the Europa G-JHYS as amateur built and before being owned by Mr Lawry, who had a privates pilot's licence at the time of the crash, it had three previous registered owners.