A MILITARY crew were last night forced to make an emergency landing in a field near Wherstead after the apache they were in clipped power lines.

Neither of the two crew members, from Wattisham airfield, were injured when the aircraft came down at 10.30pm.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We can confirm an incident has occurred involving an aircraft from Wattisham.”

MoD personnel were last night examining the aircraft to assess the extent of the damage meanwhile engineers from UK Power Networks were dispatched to nearby Lawford to inspect electricity equipment.

Speaking last night a spokesman from the power company said: “We received a report from police at 11.02pm that a helicopter had come into contact with overhead power lines.

“Our engineers are currently on site and have established that a 132,000 volt overhead power line has been damaged.

“This interrupted power supplies to 373 customers, and others across a wider area would have had a flickering supply for a few seconds which then returned to normal.

“We will be liaising with the authorities on site, arranging repairs to the electricity network and restoring power supplies as quickly as is safely possible.”

A spokeswoman for UK Power Networks said this morning: “Engineers have restored power to the majority of customers who lost power in the Tattingstone and Lawford areas last night, due a helicopter damaging overhead power lines.

“Most supplies were restored by about midnight, and more during the early hours of today. Engineers are working to restore power to the final 14 customers who are off supply and repair work continues on site.”

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