A team effort helped the Oxford Mail bring readers news of an RAF Harrier plane crash on its patch, which amazingly saw no one killed or badly hurt.

A tip-off from one of the paper’s own reporters, Sam Simpson, shortly after 5pm on Thursday, led to many of the Mail’s reporting team volunteering to help out.

Initially all that was known was that a plane had crashed north of Oxford, and that it was going to be a big story.

Late reporter Nione Meakin and photographer Yuri Anderegg were immediately sent out and told to go north of Oxford while more details came in to the office.

Local government reporter Giles Sheldrick followed shortly afterwards with photographer Ed Nix, and crime reporter Jo Duckles also went out to try to find eye-witnesses.

In the office, senior reporter Emma-Kate Lidbury started to hit the phones, trying to find out as much as she could from the Ministry of Defence, the RAF, and emergency services.

The decision was quickly taken to strip out at least two pages, and as copy started to come in deputy editor Andy Chatfield decided to clear pages one, two, three and four.

Eye witnesses told the paper that the plane – an RAF Harrier jet – had hit a car driven by an off-duty police officer, but there were no reports of casualties.

Deputy news editor Phil Norris said: “A police cordon had been thrown around the scene, but our reporters endeavoured to get as close as they could.

“With calls from the public, and reports coming into the office almost continually, it became clear that we were building up a fantastic picture of the evening’s drama.

“And by the time a press conference was called at 8pm, we had found out most of the information through our contacts and local sources – our readers provided great accounts of what happened, as well as pictures from the immediate aftermath of the crash.”

By 10pm most of the copy had been filed and by 11pm – just six hours after the crash – the paper was in its final stages of proof-reading.

Phil said: “It was amazing how reporters and photographers responded to the breaking story.

“Everyone volunteered and there was fantastic work in digging out the facts, speaking to those involved, and filing accurate, punchy copy.”