Dramatic escape from chopper crash

The incident happened shortly after 1pm close to the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel with firefighters scrambled from Welshpool, Llanfyllin and Llanfair Caereinion, but the two people on board were described as ‘walking wounded’ by emergency services.

Residents at the hotel reported hearing a loud bang and feared the worst but the two, a man aged 30 and a 32-year-old woman, were taken to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital with only minor injuries. They were the only people on board the helicopter which was coming in to land at the hotel but crashed around 100 metres away. It is thought they were on a leisure ride for the day.

A spokesperson for the Mid & West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said:  “We received the call of a light aircraft crashing into the side of a hill at around 1.15pm and our crews left the scene at around 3.30pm.”

The Dyfed-Powys Police Air Accident Investigation Unit is now on the scene.