A RETIRED aircraft engineer escaped unhurt when a slither of slate plummeted to the ground as Concorde flew overhead.

The foot-long slate speared soil inches away from Dave Dixon as he watched the supersonic jet fly over his home.

"Concorde came screaming over a lot lower than usual and I rushed outside to watch it," said Mr Dixon, 66.

"The roof slate stuck in the ground next to me - it was sharpened to a point and looked like a knife blade."

Mr Dixon, of Wood Lane, Mobberley, is now claiming compensation from British Airways.

And he is waiting for statistics showing the New York-bound jet's take-off from Manchester on Thursday.

"The slate fell from my kitchen roof which is lower but if it had come from the higher roof there would have been more acceleration," he said.

"I think it was a dangerous event - my roof wasn't in bad repair."

On Friday the airport said it was unfortunate the flight had caused problems but said it had no reason to believe that Concorde was flying lower than usual.

"As a long haul flight there was a lot of fuel on board which made it heavier and noisier," said a spokesman.

Mr Dixon said he accepted that he lived under the flightpath but wanted limitations on such heavily-loaded aircraft.

He said: "The noise was really loud - I had my hands over my ears and my wife was almost deafened."

Concorde, which travels from Manchester about six times a year, is the only aircraft exempt from noise penalties.

British Airways was unavailable for comment.

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