Pilot hangs on by a wing and a prayer

MIKE Warren is rescued (left) from his Cessna 150 after hanging from power lines for more than four hours. The small plane became entangled in the power lines while trying to land at Boeing Field in Seattle on Thursday and the pilot sat in the upside-down cockpit 60 feet above a highway while waiting to be rescued.

An estimated 2,500 homes and businesses were left without power while rescuers stabilised the plane with straps and moved up a rescue basket on the end of a ladder. Nearly four hours later Mr Warren, 47, who was unhurt, climbed into the basket. "He was more concerned about his airplane than he was about himself," said Fire Lt Dave Ewing, one of the rescuers.

Photographs: AP/Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times