Replica World War II plane lands without wheels in England

PETERBOROUGH, England, July 21 (UPI) -- A replica of a World War II-era Spitfire fighter plane made an emergency landing without wheels in a central England field and it was caught on camera.

Video of the Sunday landing at Sibson Airfield in Cambridgeshire, shared on YouTube by SWNS TV, shows the replica Royal Air Force plane, made from 20 percent original Spitfire parts, skid onto the grassy field for a remarkably smooth emergency landing without its wheels.

Witnesses said the pilot radioed the airfield saying his landing gear was malfunctioning and he circled the field for about 20 minutes to burn off his excess fuel before attempting the landing.

"The police, fire and ambulance services were all there, as he'd been up for quite a while," witness Jonny Woods told the BBC. "He just put it down belly first, slid along for a bit and then the propellers flew off. Then he got out, no worries."

The pilot was not injured in the landing.