A pilot and his press photographer passenger escaped serious injury yesterday, when their helicopter crash landed after overflying a march of countryside campaigners tackling the 3000ft Pen-y-Fan Peak in the Brecon Beacons.

The aircraft apparently hit turbulence and crashed to the ground as the pilot attempted to land it in order to interview a campaigner near Neuadd reservoir. Both the pilot, who dislocated a shoulder, and Press Association photographer Barry Batchelor, of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, managed to scramble from the wreckage which was leaking fuel.

The two-seat Leominster-based helicopter was a write-off.