The crew members were taken to Lincoln Hospital

"If that is what the pilot was doing then they really are heroes."

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said the plane was carrying dummy warheads.

Environment Agency staff were on site, to check the plane's fuel load did not cause a problem.

Police divers have been searching for debris from the crash impact.

Humberside Police has appealed to local people to report any debris washed up on the riverbank.

No wreckage from the plane is believed to have fallen on land.

Builder Malcolm Burke said he was working at his home in Welton, near Brough, when he heard a loud bang.

He said: "It heard it (the plane) go over. Then I heard the bang.

"I turned round and saw the pilot and navigator coming down with parachutes. You see the figures hanging from the parachutes.

"We live about a mile away from the river and I didn't see the plane hit the water because it was obscured by trees."

Two dinghies

Mr Burke said he believed the village was on a regular flight path and it was normal to have three or four planes flying over every day.

He said it seemed the pilot may have deliberately planned to ditch his aircraft in the river, and avoid the villages on either side.

Mr O'Connell saw the plane come down

The Humberside Police helicopter was scrambled, and the local coastguard and two RAF rescue helicopters, from bases at Leconfield and Wattisham, were called to the scene.

The Tornado, on a training flight from RAF Marham, Norfolk, came down close to a disused airfield.

The crew was located by helicopter just off the north coast of the river.

A police spokesman said: "The helicopter traced two dinghies. One had one of the casualties in it.

'Drifting in river'

"The other wasn't in his dingy. He was drifting off down the river. Air sea rescue then attended. They winched the man in the dingy out of the water.

"Humber Rescue then picked up the gentleman who was drifting down the river and he was passed on to the air sea rescue as well."

The GR4 Tornado came into service in 1989 has a 13.9 metre wingspan and is 16.7 metres in length.

It has a crew of two, pilot and navigator, who sit in tandem, one in front of another.