A HELICOPTER pilot told air traffic controllers "we're in trouble" seconds before a fatal air crash on Bolton moorland.

Wayne Burgess's last dramatic radio message was revealed today after Air Accident Investigation officers completed their probe into the fatal crash on the moors in February.

The 32-year-old former Bury man and two other men were killed when the Robinson R44 helicopter they were travelling in from Blackpool to Coventry got into difficulties, coming down on Anglezarke Moor.

As the aircraft flew into thick cloud, Mr Burgess, formerly of Heap Bridge, Bury, radioed a Warton radar team, giving his aircraft's call sign: "Helicopter Golf Mike Echo we're in trouble".

No more was heard from the helicopter which came down on February 1.

Mr Burgess, a helicopter flying instructor of Shilton near Coventry, another pilot Neil Waterfall, 38, and passenger James Roe, 40, both from Derbyshire, were all killed in the accident.

Mr Burgess, a former employee of local printing firm Redfern Flexpack, had left Bury seven years ago to take up a job as a warehouse manager in the West Midlands.

He later gained his helicopter pilot's licence and worked full time for Coventry Helicopter Centre as a flight control manager.

Neither pilot in the aircraft was qualified to fly by sole reference to flight instruments.

A police helicopter pilot who flew close to the accident site on the afternoon of the crash said conditions in the immediate area of the site were "totally unsuitable for visual flight".

The report said that it was unlikely that any technical failure contributed to the accident.

It added that the "erratic flight path" and variations in air speed suggested that the pilot had flown into the cloud inadvertently and "had become disorientated and was unable to control the helicopter".