A PILOT told of his shock at surviving a crash landing in which his plane plummeted 50 feet.

Bill Cook, 83, was flying a plane which was towing a glider when he experienced engine problems.

The pilot of the glider he was pulling, who was with a passenger, was forced to detach the glider from the plane and perform an emergency landing on MOD land close to Bovington.

  • WEYMOUTH sailor Jeff Cole was feared lost at sea when his empty yacht was found washed up on a French Beach.

The 62-year-old left Castle Cove Sailing Club in Weymouth intending to sail to Swanage but he never returned.

His body was found in October in the water at Sandy Cove, east of Ladram Bay near Sidmouth, Devon.

Tributes were paid by his family who said Mr Cole was a ‘friendly, confident and reliable’ man.

  • SAND sculptor Mark Anderson was devastated after vandals destroyed his latest works of art on Weymouth Beach.

He was left with a bill totalling thousands of pounds to repair the display, which he and his team had worked on for more than 300 hours.

  • THE Echo revealed that at least £7.3million had been wasted on refurbishing Dorchester prison, which closed in December 2013 to save money. The move by the Ministry of Justice was made as a cost saving measure as part of the Government’s ongoing plans to ‘modernise the prison estate which is fairer on the hardworking taxpayer’.
  • THE borough council announced it would no longer fund the summer fireworks events and the kite festival.

The management committee went along with the measures to save £33,356 from the events and festival.

Following this, the organisers of Weymouth Carnival stepped in to save the town’s kite festival.