A Royal Navy Lynx helicopter operating from HMS Endurance has crashed in the Antarctic, injuring the flight crew of five.

The Mk 3 Lynx, one of a pair from 815 Naval Air Squadron carried by Endurance when she operates in the Southern Hemisphere, came down on the coast of the Weddell Sea on Sunday (February 8) while the mother ship and the research vessel Sir Ernest Shackleton were laying down fuel caches for use by members of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

The five injured personnel were taken back to the Endurance for initial treatment, and the three most seriously injured were then evacuated to the BAS’s Halley Research Station. They are now being moved out of Antarctica.

Their injuries are not life threatening, according to a Ministry of Defence spokesman, who added that the cause of the crash would be fully investigated.

Endurance’s Lynx helicopters are used to support the ship’s patrol and hydrographic work during her regular seven-month deployments to the South Atlantic and the Antarctic region.