Bake Off’s Paul Hollywood swoops in on helicopter to rescue pilot after crash

The Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood came to the rescue after a pilot had crashed his aircraft.

Iain Stingmore, 58, issued a mayday call after he plummeted into a farmer’s field after ‘losing all airspeed’ unexpectedly.

First on the scene was Hollywood, 59, who noticed the emergency while on a helicopter flying lesson.

Under the guidance of his instructor, the Channel 4 star landed in the field and dashed over to assist Stingmore.

Stingmore had emerged from the wreckage and was not seriously injured but sustained cuts to his leg and a bruised rib.

He recalled crash-landing and noticing a figure approach him before realising: ‘Oh god, it’s Paul Hollywood.’

Stingmore continued to the Mail Online: ‘The first thing he said was “are you ok?” and luckily enough I was.

‘He stayed with me for about half an hour checking over me and asking me if I needed anything. I was really grateful for that.’

He added: ‘I even joked it was a shame he didn’t bring any cakes. He was a great bloke, I couldn’t have asked for any more.’

Recounting the crash, Stingmore, who has 130 flying hours after earning his pilot’s licence two years ago, said the canopy became loose and flew off behind his aircraft.

‘I lost all air speed and just dropped,’ he said.

‘I was lucky I didn’t panic because it took a couple of seconds to register what happened but I did all I could to get the plane into the wind and kept it as flat and level as I could to land.

‘There wasn’t a huge amount of damage fortunately and the landing was as clean as I could have hoped for.’

Hollywood previously told The Times in 2022 that he started learning to fly to escape the ‘madness’ of celebrity life.

He explained: It’s just you, a machine, and you’re away from all the madness. Of course I’m a bit nervous. But up there you’ve got total freedom.’

In 2024, residents living close to Hollywood’s £1,000,000 home in Ashford, Kent, raised concerns over noise pollution.

An anonymous neighbour previously told the MailOnline: ‘He comes buzzing back and forth every couple of days.

‘Many of my neighbours have horses and animals which are very disturbed by the noise.

‘He can only really fly it in good weather so it’s not been every day, but it’s been a lot over the past few weeks.’

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