I ejected from the cockpit of a plane not once but twice as an RAF pilot at Lancashire's BAE Warton

Making the decision to eject is one every pilot prepares for but none ever wants to encounter.

- by Claire Lark

It's a choice former BAE Typhoon Air Crew Advisor Craig Penrice faced twice in his time as a pilot.

The first plane he ejected from in 1985 was a English Electric Lighting F Mk 6. XS 921 - that was 40 years ago and along with other ejectee pilots, Craig will be marking the milestone in St Annes.

It's a remarkable story...

With fuel running desperately low towards the end of his sortie, Flight Lieutenant Craig Penrice requested permission to return to base.

But as he gave the aircraft a turn to the left, things started to go wrong.

Almost as though the stick was taking on a life of its own, the movement sent the English Electric Lightning plummeting into a sickening high-speed spiral dive.

Within seconds Flt. Lt. Penrice was plunging straight down towards the freezing North Sea.

Knowing his only choice was to get out before the jet hit the sea, his training instinctively kicked in.

Craig reached for the ejector handle. Boom.

The next thing he remembers was lying on the cold floor of a helicopter on his way to hospital.

Craig confesses he always wanted to fly.

He recalls: "My parents' house was slap bang under the approach to Glasgow airport, so we'd watch airliners coming in and out. It was the late 60s and early 70s, when things like Jumbos were just starting to come about."