AN RAF Harrier jump jet crashed in Oxfordshire after the pilot made a mistake while trying to avoid flying over Blenheim Palace, an inquiry report has concluded.

An RAF Board of Inquiry report into the incident on July 13, 2006, said that the pilot had to eject after a “momentary lapse of judgment”.

The incident happened at about 5pm on July 13, 2006, when the ground attack jet, heading to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire from RAF Cottesmore in Lincolnshire, crashed at Upper Weaveley Farm, near Tackley.

The plane narrowly missed the Sturdy’s Castle pub and a garage and clipped a car on the A4260, which was blocked by wreckage from the jet.

According to the report, pilot Flight Lieutenant Chris Pearson made an over-tight turn at Kidlington to avoid flying over Blenheim Palace and the aircraft “departed from controlled flight, at a position where recovery could not be accomplished”.

The report, released following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that the aircraft was carrying 7,000lb of fuel.

Board members said they considered the heavy weight was a contributory factor in the accident.

An incorrect flap setting was listed as another factor.

Graham Mitchell, 50, the owner of Sturdy’s Castle Car Centre, was the first on the scene after the pilot parachuted into a field.

He said: “I saw the plane come down and the pilot eject out of his cockpit.

“I was the first one to get to the pilot. He was lying in the field. I asked him if he could feel his fingers and toes and he said ‘yes’, so I asked him why he wasn’t getting up.

“Apparently they’re trained to lie down after a crash.

“Within seconds, a helicopter landed and took him away.

“The area was cordoned off, so people couldn’t reach our garage for about a week.

“RAF staff searched the whole area and then one of our mechanics found a large hydraulic part for one of the plane’s wheels.”

Flt Lt Pearson, who had just returned to the UK from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, planned a training circuit over Oxford Airport, at Kidlington, en route to the Royal International Air Tattoo, being held at Fairford.

RAF spokeswoman Wing Commander Julie Parry said eight out of 10 recommendations made by the Board of Inquiry had already been implemented.

The remaining two recommendations involve engineering modifications to Harrier aircraft.

She said they were being implemented alongside other modernisation work.

The alterations are due to be completed next year.

As part of their training programme, all Harrier pilots have been told to watch a video of the final seconds of the flight, taken from a data recorder recovered after the crash.

Commenting on the inquiry report, Air Chief Marshal Sir Joe French said: “This unnecessary loss of a most valuable aircraft should act as a stark reminder of the need never to forget the basics, not least when operating under conditions of ‘skill fade’, resulting from enduring operational deployments.

“The lessons are to be given wide publicity.

“In particular, I wish to reinforce firmly the message that, once a fleeting opportunity to save an uncontrollable aircraft has been lost, pilots need to eject without hesitation.”

The RAF said that Flt Lt Pearson had no disciplinary case to answer and had continued his career.