Television presenter Richard Hammond is critically ill after crashing a jet propelled car at 280mph.
Hammond was attempting to break the world land speed record at an airfield near York when the car span out of control and crashed.
The bid was being filmed for the BBC's Top Gear motoring show which the 36-year-old co-presents.
Hammond was unconscious at the scene but was reported to be regaining consciousness when he arrived at Leeds General Infirmary following the incident at Elvington airfield.
Airfield safety officer Dave Ogden said the crash had happened on the last of the day.
He said: "We were down there with Top Gear who were filming him trying to break the British land speed record.
"On the previous run the car had just gone over 300mph but I am not sure if it had broken the record.
"They had just done one more run and were planning to finish when it veered off to the right.
"One of the parachutes had deployed but it went on to the grass and spun over and over before coming to a rest about 100 yards from us."
He said his crew and an ambulance that was already on the airfield rushed over and found the car upside down and "dug in" to the grass.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "The incident happened quite recently and the focus of our attention is on Richard at this stage.
"We will make further details known as soon as they are available."
Inspector Mike Thompson, of North Yorkshire Police, said officers dealt with an incident at the airfield north-east of York.
He said: "We received a report via the fire service of a male person trapped in what was described as an overturned jet car which had been driven on the airfield.
"The male occupant has received serious injuries and has been airlifted to hospital at Leeds."
http://www.ntlworld.com/news/story_uk.php?page_zone=223.1.1&storyid=40858736 Just heard that he's no longer in a critical condition which i think we all agree is very good news!
Nick
