Plane retrieval was 'a first' for recovery firm

The crashed plane in a field near Eccleshall was reported to officials on Friday

The owner of a recovery firm has said despite having many "weird and wonderful" call outs, the recent retrieval of a plane was a first for his business.

Gregory Burgher, of GDB Recovery based in Stafford, said his team retrieved the downed plane from a field near Eccleshall after the aircraft suffered an engine failure.

He was called by the owner of the plane, he said, and added that the two people in the vehicle had walked away unharmed.

Mr Burgher said the customer was asked to remove the wings before a telehandler was used to load the main cabin onto a truck.

The aircraft retrieval was "a first" for the recovery firm

"It caused a lot of speculation locally, as it stood out to a lot of people," he said.

"As the train track runs parallel to the field, a lot of people saw it from the train."

The aircraft was now back with its owner, Mr Burgher said.

"Safe to say it was a slightly different task to say the least, but it was nice and simple and it's another job ticked off the list," he said in a post on Facebook.