Two men have been killed after a helicopter on a training flight crashed near Blackpool, police have said.
A mayday signal was first sent from the craft as it flew over Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, at around 12.10pm on Tuesday.
Around 40 minutes later the aircraft was located at Barnaby Sands, an area of salt marsh on the Lancashire coast near Fleetwood.
Police said later the two fatalities were both male, but their families were yet to be informed and identities could not be released.
Lancashire Police said the helicopter was on a training flight with a pilot. The learner was the passenger. Local people said the weather at the time was sunny with a slight wind.
The area where the helicopter came down, Barnaby Sands, is a nature reserve managed by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.
It is a large area of salt marsh popular with bird watchers, but there are few houses or habitation in the vicinity. No one from the Trust saw the crash.
Police secured the scene and an investigation was under way with the help of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) to discover what caused the helicopter to crash.
Lancashire force incident manager Nick Williams-Jones said police had not yet recovered the bodies of the two men.
He added: "The wreckage is still there and police will continue to assist the Air Accidents Investigation Branch."
