THE crew of an RAF jet saved three people in a crippled civilian aircraft in a nail-biting rescue thousands of feet in the air.

A Beechcraft Super King Air 200 lost its management and communication systems as it flew over Scotland on Tuesday - leaving it with only its engines and altimeter working.

The plane was heading from Glasgow to Peterborough and lost its systems just after it levelled out at about 40,000ft after take-off.

But the pilot and his two passengers finally reached the ground safely after a Tornado F3 from RAF Leeming, in North Yorkshire, raced to the scene to guide them down using cockpit-to-cockpit hand signals.

And in a tense mission that lasted more than an hour, RAF pilot Mark Wilson and navigator Ted Threapleton escorted the stricken Beechcraft from airport to airport until it could be safely taken in to land at RAF Leuchars, in Fife.

The Tornado was on a routine training sortie and had just reached the Lake District when a message was received telling of the plane's plight.

Flight Lieutenant Threapleton, 54, said: "We said that we could help because we had more fuel than usual on board - about nine tonnes. It was not long before we picked him up on our radar."

The F3 drew parallel and slightly ahead of the twin-engine turboprop and gave the recognised greeting of rocking its wings.

Without his on-board systems, the Beechcraft pilot had no way of knowing his speed or attitude. He did now know where he was, and going into clouds would have left him disorientated.

Having flown towards Prestwick, near Glasgow, it soon became apparent that visibility was too poor and the proposed landing site was moved to Edinburgh.

The Tornado crew had to use all their skill to keep their supersonic jet alongside the much slower civilian plane -using hand signals to communicate.

But then, the plan changed again. Flt Lt Threapleton said: "When we started to descend, there was some more cloud and the plane really struggled. The pilot did well to pull back out of it."

The landing location was changed to RAF Leuchars and the F3 and the Beechcraft had to weave between the clouds before safely landing.

Flt Lt Threapleton said: "There was probably nobody else who could have done it because civilian aircraft do not have all the radars, radios and tracking equipment we do. We are trained to fly in formation and do this type of shepherding.

"We both knew that if we did not get the plane below cloud, he would eventually have run out of fuel and crashed. Unless he had run out of cloud, there was no other option."

Flt Lt Wilson, 30, said: "I feel fine now because we rescued them. But me and Ted did get out and shake each other's hands when we landed."