A FORMER RAF fighter pilot who ejected from a Phantom jet in 1986 has spoken about his survival to a group of men at a church.

Ian Ferguson told the harrowing tale of his crash, which is still the fastest and lowest-survivable ejection in the history of the RAF, to men at Mount Zion Church in Cliviger, near Burnley.

Despite falling for 20 seconds and breaking an arm and a leg on impact, he lived to tell the tale.

The low-level practice intercept flight over the Pennines led to the crash, but the grandad’s faith helped him overcome the aftermath.

The 67-year-old said: “I was flying at a speed of 600 mph when the nose of my jet simply dived toward the ground without my input.

“Slowly and gently I eased the control column rearward but that started a high 8g pitch up to 50 degrees and then a violent nosedive to 30 degrees nose down.

“I remember seeing my canopy full of ground and rocks and no sky. The controls had malfunctioned. I’m absolutely certain God had his hand on my life.”

After both he and the navigator ejected, Mr Ferguson landed on the summit of Buckden Pike in the Yorkshire Dales, but his canopy continued to pull him towards the edge.

With a broken left wrist, he eventually pulled it off and a helicopter rescued him.

Almost 30 years after leaving the RAF, Mr Ferguson was ordained and became minister of Grace Church in Blackburn for five years.

He then became a chaplain for 25,000 patients at Bentham Road Health Centre, Blackburn.

At Mount Zion he was presented with a model of the fighter jet in which he crashed made by David Holmes, accompanied by parts from the original aircraft recovered from the crash site by David Stansfield.