A CORRODED fuel line triggered a fuel blockage which caused a twin-engine plane to crash, killing its pilot.

A report into the accident, in which 64-year-old Frank Walker died, by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) said a problem with the Piper Aztec's fuel system was to blame.

Mr Walker had taken off from Bagby Airfield, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, at 12.30pm, on June 29, last year.

Minutes later, it crashed into a field and burst into flames at the entrance to Thirkleby Hall caravan park, close to the A19.

A report by the AAIB said: "The aircraft appeared to suffer a significant reduction in power from the left engine on takeoff.

"The reduction in power probably resulted from the complete blockage of one fuel injector on the left engine, caused by corrosion products associated with the fuel system."

In the previous five years, the plane had been stored outside for long periods with no maintenance, it added.

Mr Walker, of Silsden, West Yorkshire, flew to Bagby for maintenance work to remove the corrosion.

Initial engine tests proved satisfactory and Mr Walker was due to fly back to where the plane was based - Gamston Airfield, near Lincoln.

But as he took off, engineers at the airfield said the plane's engines sounded rough and were spewing out black smoke.

Mr Walker reported the plane was not climbing properly and, circling the airfield, he tried to land, but was forced to pull up as he ran out of runway.

As the plane banked steeply to the left at 100ft, it pitched forward and crashed.

The AAIB spokesman said: "The blocking of one of the six fuel injector nozzels, on the left engine, was established to have been as a result of by-products from the corrosion of aluminium alloy. The presence of a nozzle blocked by corrosion debris, which occurred so soon after the reported satisfactory post maintenance runs, would seem to indicate that, despite the cleaning and flushing of the engine's fuel system, not all of the corrosion debris had been removed."

A spokesman for Fox Engineering, which carried out the maintenance work, said the only way to spot the problem in this particular part would have been to saw it in half.