Bermuda national cricket team’s training session in nets adjacent to the St. Vincent airport came to an abrupt halt on Saturday morning when the pilot of a small plane lost control as he approached the runway and veered more than 300 yards off course before barely clearing the Arnos Vale cricket stadium and plunging nose first into a nearby river. Miraculously the pilot, later identified as Anil Ramlochan, and his three passengers walked away virtually unscathed.

The whole episode was watched by Governor Sir John Vereker and Lady Vereker, as well as Bermuda Police Commissioner George Jackson, who had dropped by to visit the Bermuda players ahead of today’s World Cup warm-up match against England.

Players immediately ran to a nearby pavilion balcony to get a better view of the incident as emergency vehicles raced to the scene.

Bermuda skipper Irving Romaine quipped: “What next, we saw someone shot dead at the hotel in Nairobi and now a plane crash!” The badly-damaged single-engined Cessna was quickly covered by tarpaulins after all four occupants had scrambled out.

The two males and two females, who had set off from Barbados earlier in the morning, were taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital where they were examined, underwent x-rays and later released.

Lady Vereker said she had watched the plane “wobble” as it approached the runway on what was its second attempt to land in strong crosswinds.

Another eyewitness said the pilot seemed to lose control before clipping a perimeter fence of the Arnos Vale stadium and plummeting into the water.