The pilots involved in the Kegworth air disaster claimed they were made scapegoats.

They were criticised for shutting down the wrong engine in the official accident report and were sacked from British Midland in January 1991.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said they acted hastily and contrary to their training.

But in a BBC documentary in April 1991, Captain Kevin Hunt from Aston-upon-Trent in Derbyshire, said: "We were the easy option - the cheap option if you wish. We made a mistake – we both made mistakes – but the question we would like answered is why we made those mistakes."

Captain Hunt spent years in a wheelchair after suffering spinal and leg injuries in the crash.

He was one of British Midland's most experienced pilots, having joined the airline aged 20 in 1966 as a junior crewman. He was promoted to captain in 1974.

First officer David McClelland, from Donaghadee, County Down, was less badly hurt but still spent several months in hospital.

He said: "Pilot error is a very neat term. What they're saying is that the people who designed it, manufactured it and carried out the specifications all got it right but the two chaps at the front got it wrong. Straight away it sweeps all the problems below the mat."

In August 1991 the Post reported that Mr McClelland received almost £10,000 from British Midland in an out-of-court settlement after claiming unfair dismissal.

A spokesperson for the company said the settlement was made on purely commercial grounds and was not an admission that the airline had acted wrongly in dismissing the pilot.

But Kegworth residents still heralded them as heroes for steering the flight over their village.