A Bradford Army officer who survived a 3,500-foot parachute fall was praised today for staying cool in the drama which unfolded above an airport in Kenya.

An Army chief said Lieutenant Charles Williams, of Heaton, had remembered his training after his foot became caught in the parachute rigging lines when he jumped from the Cessna 206 aircraft as it circled above Malindi airport.

The tangle made his parachute spiral faster as he descended but he escaped serious injury when he crashed through the corrugated iron roof of a house in a shanty town in eastern Kenya.

Lt Williams, 25, a platoon commander with the Irish Guards cracked three vertebrae in the lower part of his back and dislocated a finger when his fall was broken by the roof.

His instructors stopped the other jumps and followed his path down to earth.

Speaking about his ordeal last night, Lt Williams said the roof of the hut saved his life.

"I thought I was going to die. When I landed on the ground I thought 'oh my god' I'm still alive.

"For the first three or four minutes on the ground I couldn't feel anything as my body's shock system started working.

"Then the pain kicked in and I realised I could move my toes.

"The corrugated roof saved me. If I'd landed on the grass I would have been dead."

Lt Williams said he could have walked away from the crash scene but his military training had taught him to treat all back injuries with the utmost caution.

He said the Army instructors with him in the plane, many of whom had jumped with the elite Red Devils display team, could not believe he had survived the fall.

The young soldier said he went parachuting to try to combat his fear of heights. It was only his third parachute jump.

He said: "I don't think I'd go again just for something to do if I was bored at a weekend.

"But if the Army wanted me to do it then I wouldn't be put off."

Lt Williams was given first aid by British Army medics and flown to a hospital in Nairobi before being returned to Britain.

He is still receiving treatment and is expected to rejoin the Irish Guards in January.

Lieutenant Colonel Mike Smith, commandant of the Joint Services Parachuting Centre in Netheravon, Wiltshire, was in charge of the dropping zone at the airfield.

He said: "He handled the situation very well. There was very little he could do. He stuck to the drill to stay with the parachute and not to jettison it.

"As we drove out in our safety vehicle it was jungle vegetation and we couldn't see anything of the impact.

"I didn't know if we were going to carry a body away or somebody seriously injured. We carry a two-way radio and he came on, saying 'I'm all right.' He was cool.

"The roof broke his fall. He was lucky because, if he had fallen onto the concrete runway, he would have broken a lot more bones."

Lt Williams joined the Army about three years ago and this year has been responsible for the training, welfare and leadership of 28 soldiers in Northern Island.

His family has a strong Army tradition - his grandfather was awarded the Military Cross in the Second World War and his great grandfather received the same medal in the First World War.