A man has died and a woman was seriously injured when a light aircraft crashed following a mayday call.
Police received a mayday call at 3.30pm on Sunday from a light aircraft reporting difficulties while flying near to Stalbridge, Dorset.
Shortly afterwards, the aircraft was seen by an off-duty police officer to crash near to Stourton Caundle, north Dorset.
Paramedics were called to the scene and found that the pilot of the plane, a man in his 60s from Hindon, Wiltshire, had died.
A 25-year-old woman who was the only passenger in the plane was taken by the Dorset police helicopter to the Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester suffering non-life threatening injuries.
A Dorset police spokesman said: "The government's Air Accidents Investigation Branch have been called to investigate what caused the crash, with the support and assistance of Dorset police."
