Cannabis might have affected the judgement or handling of a pilot in a light aircraft crash which involved a convicted drug smuggler on day release from prison.

The finding comes in a report from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) into the crash on February 23 this year which left a Cessna 172M Skyhawk wrecked on Farthing Common, near Hythe.

The plane, which took off from Rochester Airport, was being flown by Sid Clark, 47, from Barming.

Mr Clark had one passenger, Tim Des Vignes, who was on day release from Blantyre House Prison, a category C prison in Goudhurst, where he was serving a sentence for importing drugs.

Amazingly the pair both walked away from the accident with only minor injuries.

The AAIB recorded how Mr Clark had been taking the plane on a cross-country flight when weather conditions deteriorated.

The report said: “When the aircraft entered cloud, the pilot tried to regain visual flight conditions by turning and descending.

“As he did so the aircraft flew into and came to rest in some trees.”

The plane was intact when it first struck the trees, with all flying controls attached and the operating circuits connected.

The AAIB claims the tree canopies might have saved Mr Clark and Mr Des Vignes’ by slowing the plane as it crashed.

The report does not go into any further detail about cannabis but concludes that: “The possibility that cannabis may have impaired his (Mr Clark’s) judgement and/or handling of complex tasks cannot be excluded.”

At the time, Mr Clark said in an interview with kmfm that he had not smoked anything before taking off.