AN RAF pilot had less than three seconds to save himself as his multi-million pound fighter plummeted to earth when a routine training flight went horribly wrong, an inquest heard yesterday.

Witnesses watched in horror as the 600mph Harrier GR7 jump jet nose-dived into a field near the Teesdale village of Stainton, near Barnard Castle, in County Durham.

Farming families related the final moments of RAF Group Captain David Haward as they recalled seeing his plane nose-dive out of the clouds above them and crashed into fields.

The newly-promoted station commander had been pulling up from a mock bombing raid on December 18, 1998, when it is thought he became disorientated in the clouds and barrel-rolled the plane to try to re-emerge underneath the clouds. However, he reappeared with the nose of the plane heading straight for the ground.

The father-of-two had just 2.6 seconds before the plane hit the ground.

His fellow pilots heard him say he was pulling up a split second before the impact.

Michael Littlefair, of West Farm, at nearby Staindrop, told the inquest at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court that when he spotted a formation of three RAF jets flying over a hill, he thought nothing of it, as it was a daily occurrence in the area.

He said: "It just carried on flying at the same height and a second later it flew behind a tree. The next time I caught sight of the plane it was heading straight into the ground.

"I saw the explosion."

A Ministry of Defence accident report stated that the station commander, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, had flown into a position from which there was "no possible recovery". The report went on to say that distraction or disorientation may have been factors, and he may also have been hampered by the weather and clouds.

An exact cause could not be given because the black box recorder had been damaged by the impact of the crash and recovery of the wreckage was made difficult with the steep craters on either side of the plane, the inquest heard.

South Durham and Darlington Coroner Colin Penna recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Speaking after the inquest, an RAF spokesman said that, after the accident, procedures were reviewed and pilots were now advised to climb above cloud if they got into difficulty.

He said: "As far as we are concerned, it was a tragic accident that happened and procedures and rules have been reviewed, as with any other accident. We have tried to learn from what happened to try to prevent it happening again in the future."

The £17m Harrier jet has a good safety record despite only having one jet engine rather than two, as used in the Tornado and the new Eurofighter Typhoon. The aircraft is widely credited with contributing a crucial role in the battle for the Falkland Islands, in 1982, when it achieved air superiority over the Argentine airforce despite being out-gunned and out-numbered