Pictured: Hero who dragged passengers from plane after it crashed on dual carriageway

Two motorists have told how they rescued a pilot and two passengers from a light aircraft after it crashed on a dual carriageway in Wales.

Daniel Nicholson, 46, and Joel Snarr, 35, had been driving on the A40 between between Raglan and Abergavenny when the aircraft made an unplanned landing at around 11am.

Mr Nicholson, a retail manager, described seeing the plane ‘come from nowhere’ after it collided with overheard wiring and landed upside down before ‘bursting into flames’.

He said: ‘I screeched to a halt, and didn’t hesitate – I could see there were people in there.

‘I could see a young girl from my side, as there was no fire my side, and I knew I could get access. She was terrified, screaming because she could see the fire.

‘I initially tried to smash the front window of the plane but I couldn’t. Then I noticed a crack in the back and began kicking it.

‘She was kicking from the inside, helping and eventually I was able to drag her out and a boy who looked to be a sibling, they seemed a similar age, around 19-20.’

Mr Snarr, an ex bomb sergeant who was medically discharged with PTSD this year, was in the car with his wife when the aircraft ‘hit the central reservation’.

Describing it as a ‘miracle’ that no one was on the road at the time, he sprinted towards the plane with Mr Nicholson and helped to free those inside.

He told the BBC: ‘A young lad had managed to crawl out through the broken window, as I got there a young woman was crawling out of the window.

‘I grabbed her by the belt buckle and just dragged her clear. The pilot put his hands out – grabbed both of them – pulled him out clear of the plane.’

Shortly after they hauled the passengers to safety, Mr Snarr said the parachute and extinguishers ‘popped off’ and aircraft’s remaining fuel burst into ‘an incredibly intense fire’.

In total 19 firefighters were needed to extinguish the aircraft.

All three of those on-board the aircraft, believed to be a father and two children, were taken to hospital, but their injuries are not life-threatening.

The A40 was closed for several hours after the incident but has since reopened.