Winchester hospital tested its major incident plan by dealing with a 'plane crash' at Southampton airport.

The emergency plan of the Winchester and Eastleigh healthcare NHS Trust swung into action to deal with 120 casualties when a plane overshot the runway.

The Royal Hampshire County Hospital received a 10am call from Hampshire ambulance that triggered the exercise.

Some 21 volunteers from the Casualties Union added to the realism of the incident which lasted two and half hours.

Andrew Dangerfield, the organiser, said: "We are required to test our plan with mock casualties once every three years to ensure that we would be able to react appropriately and treat large numbers of patients involved in a major disaster."

Chris Gundry, regional health emergency planning officer, said the hospital had coped well.

A feedback session enabled staff to give ideas of how things could be improved.

Rod Halls, trust chief executive, said; "The exercise wouldn't have been the success it was without the commitment of staff who learnt a lot from the exercise which we will use to update the plan."