British plane makes emergency landing during sea search for British couple missing off Jersey

A search-and-rescue operation for two fishermen lost off the coast of Jersey was handed over to French coastguards last night after a British rescue plane was forced to make an emergency landing.

The aircraft was one of several that were looking for the lost pair in 100 square miles of open sea around the Channel Islands.

Coastguards said the fishermen has been heading towards Les Ecrehous reef, about halfway between Jersey and France, in a dinghy when they were reported missing.

Air and sea rescue vehicles were being sourced from other Channel Islands to help search for the missing craft.

The plane crash-landed just after 7.15pm in woodland close to the Priory Inn, at Devil's Hole, St Mary, but none of the five people on board were injured.

John Dowling, the manager of the Priory Inn, said the crew came into his pub with police after landing.

"No one was injured, everyone was all right and that's the main thing, isn't it?" he said. "Of course they were shaken up. You would be too if you'd just crash landed a plane, wouldn't you?"

John Gripton, the managing editor of BBC Radio Jersey, said the twin-propeller Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander aircraft was "intact" after "hitting a tree perilously close to the cliff top" at Devil's Hole. He said the crash happened during gale-force winds and torrential rain in a very rural area on the north of the island