AN OFF-duty nurse has described how she tended to two men who were critically injured after their microlight crash-landed on farmland near Blackburn.

Pilot John Hearle and passenger Reg Coar, 75, both had to be cut free from the Main Air Sports Blade' aircraft, after it had plummeted to the ground on farmland off Further Lane, Mellor, just after 7.10pm.

Eyewitness Hilary Ramsbottom, of nearby Ravenswing Barn, saw the craft disappear as it flew low over Copster Farm and immediately suspected that it had crashed.

She raced to the scene with her husband Peter and niece Vicky Taylor, who was staying with the couple over the weekend.

Vicky, 29, a nurse at Bristol Royal Infirmary, helped to stabilise the pair while Peter went to alert the emergency services.

She said: "Their injuries obviously needed urgent medical treatment so I just stayed with them and kept talking to them, and made sure they didn't move too much."

Neighbours helped to pull branches away from the stricken craft until fire crews from Blackburn, Darwen and Bamber Bridge stations arrived on the scene.

Firefighters had to remove the engine from the craft to free pilot Mr Hearle and passenger Mr Coar from the wreckage.

The pair were taken by ambulance to the Royal Preston Hospital.

Last night a spokesman for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said that both Mr Hearle and Coar were in a critical condition.

A North West Ambulance Service spokesman said that the two casualties sustained serious head and leg injuries as a result of the crash.

It is believed that Mr Coar, the rear seat passenger, sustained the leg injuries.

Insp Steve Baines, of Lancashire Police, said the craft had set off from an airfield at Pilling, near Morecambe, earlier that day and it is believed that the microlight was returning to the site when it got into difficulties.

Police say that a full investigation will be undertaken by the Air Accident Investigation Branch into the incident.

Father-of-two Mr Coar, of Feniscliffe Drive, Blackburn, is believed to be a retired engineer. His wife Dorothy is understood to be keeping a vigil at the hospital.

Police said Mr Hearle, a builder in his late 40s, lived in Osbaldeston Lane, Osbaldeston, but he is now believed to live in nearby Branch Road, Mellor.

Last July a microlight crashed at farmland in nearby Balderstone - pilot Nick Hayes, 48, from Wheelton, managed to steer his craft to safety after he got into difficulty during a night flight from Hoghton.