It was meant to have been a wonderful treat for his wife - a flight up, up and away over York in a hot air balloon.

But David Button's romantic Christmas gift for Lorna Button went badly wrong after he suffered a hand injury while helping to unload the basket from a trailer on Knavesmire.

His right hand was trapped between the heavy basket of the balloon and the metal side of the trailer.

He heard a ripping sound and when the hand was released he discovered a large V-shaped piece of skin had been rolled back, exposing tissue below.

Mr Button, 46, of Dringhouses, also suffered two further deep cuts to the back of the hand, and two to the left wrist, and psychological disturbance including flashbacks in the weeks after the accident, said his solicitor Mark Hollinghurst, of Ashworth Tetlow.

He needed 19 stitches, and had been left with potentially permanent scarring and tingling sensations on the back of his right hand. And, instead of floating across the city in the balloon, his wife Lorna spent the evening in casualty with him.

Now the insurers for flight organisers Balloon Rides, of Charity Farm, Skipwith, near Selby, while not admitting liability, have paid £2,000 to Mr Button in respect of the pain and suffering he has endured, along with his legal and financial costs.

Mr Button, recruitment manager for train company GNER in York, said that - concerned about the safety of other people paying for flights - he wanted to publicise the public safety issues raised by his accident.

Mr Hollinghurst said Balloon Rides' insurers disputed the accident circumstances, saying there were differing accounts of what happened.

They disputed the extent of the injuries suffered by Mr Button and suggested that explicit instructions had been given by the pilot to those assisting in unloading the balloon to take care in positioning their hands.

They said it was the balloon company's view that Mr Button was "largely the author of his own misfortune." Mr Hollinghurst said he argued on behalf of Mr Button that the unloading system was inherently unsafe, and that lifting equipment should have been available so that volunteers were not put in danger.

A spokesman for Balloon Rides declined to comment when contacted by the Evening Press.

News of the accident comes after Transport Minister Glenda Jackson announced earlier this year that safety regulations for commercial balloon flight operators were to be tightened.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.