The 13-year-old sneaked into the local airport and gave the planes a whirl, crashing the first into a guardrail and abandoning the other after taking it round in circles on the runway.

Police in the city of Huzhou, in eastern China, said the boy’s family has agreed to pay 2,000 yuan (£235) towards the 8,000 yuan (£940) damage he caused.

Although neither plane left the ground, airport authorities were impressed with the boy, who said he learned by observing a repair crew the previous day.

The airport’s director has since invited the boy to take flying lessons and train there as a pilot, the BBC reports.