A young pilot celebrating his A Level results took photos of a huge fire as he soared through the skies above.

Shortly after flames engulfed a half-built block of flats on Burton Road, Debden on Friday afternoon (August 17), Kathan Dudhela took off from Elstree airfield in his two-seater Cessna 152.

As he made his way towards North Weald, the air traffic controller asked the 18 year-old to check whether smoke was drifting over the flight path.

Mr Dudhela said: "I saw the smoke as soon as I took off from the airfield and the air controller ask me to go and have a look.

"I was 1,500 ft above the ground.

"Where I was there was a lot of smoke but it was going a lot higher than 1,500 ft.

"I would say it was billowing up to 2,000 ft."

The Uxbridge College student - who has been flying for two years and on Thursday found out he had earned two Bs and a C in his A Levels - decided to take a few photos of the plume.

He added: "I let the plane fly itself for a moment and took a quick snap.

"The smoke was going the other way so we could keep taking off from the airfield.

"I soon landed and told the controllers that it was not conflicting with the flight path of the aerodrome."