A London City Airport worker “could have drowned” when his 4x4 entered the King George V Dock this morning.

Newham Recorder: The rescue at King George V Dock (picture: Andrew Christy)The rescue at King George V Dock (picture: Andrew Christy) (Image: Andrew Christy)

A colleague, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that the man could not be contacted by radio, and the control tower was unable to locate the vehicle either.

“Nobody saw what happened,” he said. “It wasn’t on CCTV either.

“He was on his own in the vehicle and he managed to get himself out of the water.

“If he hadn’t had the window down he could have drowned.”

He added that he believes the driver may be diabetic, which could have been a factor in the incident.

Police confirmed that the driver, who was described by his colleague as having worked at the airport for a long time, was not injured during the incident, which happened at around 11.30am.

Despite the driver managing to get out of the water by himself, a number of emergency services and airport vehicles attended the scene.

Andrew Christy, who lives in nearby Gallions Point, was alerted to the incident when he heard the police helicopter overhead.

He said: “I must have seen about 20 police cars, ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

“He was taken back to the airport in an airport vehicle. He didn’t seem to be hurt, just a bit wet.”

The vehicle is currently still in the water.

London City Airport declined to comment.