A PILOT has told air accident investigators how he battled to bring down a stricken aircraft seconds after flying over a golf course filled with players.

The man at the controls of the Beech King Air plane that crash-landed just yards from the Dudsbury Golf Club on Wednesday was interviewed yesterday by experts with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the Department of Transport.

Two men walked away unharmed from the wreckage of the plane after it came down between the golf course and a section of the River Stour behind Kinson Manor Farm.

Speaking yesterday, AAIB engineer Andrew Robinson said a colleague was interviewing the pilot to investigate any “aircraft control issues” while he and other members of the team worked at the crash site.

He said he had recovered electronic navigation systems from the aircraft to try to establish its “track” before it came down.

“While only the larger aircraft have black box recorders, many aircraft now have GPS devices with non-volatile memory,” he said.

“We have taken out one of the GPS units to see what it can tell us. We are building up the picture.”

He said the investigation could last up to six months, adding that the aircraft would be dismantled before being removed from the field on a lorry.

Yesterday, engineers had removed cowlings from both engines.

Eyewitness Steve Pockneall, Dudsbury’s club professional, told the Echo on Wednesday that the plane had come in low over the 13th fairway before banking hard left and crash-landing in the field.

The American-registered aircraft developed problems soon after leaving Bournemouth International Airport, where its flight had been planned by aircraft sales consultancy av8jet.com.

Av8’s John Norris told the Daily Echo his company did not house or maintain the stricken King Air, but had provided flight planning services for Wednesday’s journey. International flights from Bournemouth Airport were delayed on Wednesday, including two Ryanair flights and a Thomson Airways flight to Sharm-el-Sheikh.

Yesterday, the airport reported that operations had returned to normal.