An Utley couple have told how they escaped when their aircraft crashed during a visit to a remote region of Africa.

The runway incident came just days after Carol and Ken Wood were involved in another accident at a tiny rural airstrip.

Between the two incidents a third plane from the same air-shuttle service crashed killing its pilot.

Only a warning from Mr Wood, a long-time aircraft enthusiast, saved passengers from injury in the second accident.

Mr and Mrs Wood, of Skipton Road, who are in their fifties, regard their two accidents as a comedy of errors rather than a scandal.

The couple have holidayed in Kenya several times and last year flew to the same region without mishap.

While at a Kenyan beach resort last month they decided to return to the Maasai Mara animal reserves to see animals such as giraffes, lions and elephants.

The region has hundreds of tiny airstrips used by an air-shuttle service -- run jointly by several airlines -- flying ageing 21-seater aeroplanes.

On one stop-over during the outward flight to the reserve, the Woods's plane fell into a pothole while taxi-ing along the dirt runway.

Mrs Wood, who works for Keighley Voluntary Services, said: "The pilot tried to dig out the nosewheel with a shovel and a machete.

"He got a Land Rover and a very rusty wire, but they couldn't pull six tonnes of aircraft.

"A tractor eventually pulled the front wheel out, then pulled one of the back wheels into the same hole."

The passengers had originally sheltered under the wing, but had to move into the sun where Mrs Wood received burns.

The only other shelter was under trees at the edge of the runway, but these were infested with lions that in the past had eaten locals.

A more serious incident was in store for the Woods as they waited at an airstrip for their return flight.

Mrs Wood said: "The plane landed heavily and I saw that the aircraft was gushing hydraulic fluid from its nose wheel.

The pilot said "it's all right, we'll land at a longer runway so it won't matter that we don't have any brakes".

"My husband said there was no way he was getting on board. The rest of the passengers got off.

"The pilot said he would prove the plane was perfectly okay. He moved off but went round in a tight circle, right into the shelter we'd been standing in a few minutes earlier.

"Six inches behind it was an electrified elephant fence. If we'd all been in the plane, our weight would have taken us into that fence and we'd have fried."

On returning to their resort the Woods were told by their courier that a third aeroplane -- part of the same shuttle service -- had crashed two days previously.

Mrs Wood said: "He said the plane had crashed on takeoff. 'Don't worry' he said. 'Only the pilot died'."

l Mrs Wood even took time out to pose for a photograph with her Keighley News for our 'Where in the World' challenge