A MEMBER of the Royal Navy has died following a training incident in a Merlin helicopter.

A Merlin Mk4 helicopter was involved in a night-flying training exercise when it ditched off the Dorset coast.

In a statement form the Ministry of Defence, a Royal Navy spokesperson says: “It is with great sadness that we must report a member of the Royal Navy has died following a training incident last night.

"Our thoughts are with the family - who have been informed - and all those affected at this sad time. A full investigation will take place."

HM Coastguard was allegedly involved and has been contacted by the Daily Echo. 

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “deeply saddened” by the death of a member of the Royal Navy after a Merlin helicopter ditched in the English Channel.

He said in a post on X: “Deeply saddened to hear of the tragic death of a member of the Royal Navy.

“My thoughts are with the family and loved ones during this painful time.”

The Royal Navy said the helicopter crashed off the coast of Dorset on Wednesday night during the training exercise with the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.

Sir Keir paid tribute to the ship’s company “particularly those involved in the search-and-rescue operation”.

Defence Secretary John Healey has described the news of the death of a Royal Navy member of personnel as “dreadful”.

He told the PA News agency while on a visit to HMS Diamond in Portsmouth: “Dreadful news. Truly dreadful news.

“I use dreadful because this is what everyone connected to the armed forces, news of personnel in service dying and all my thoughts and the thoughts of those in the wider navy I’ve been with today are with the family, the friends and the close colleagues of the one we’ve lost today.”

On the investigation into the cause of the incident, he told PA: “If there was a technical aspect to this they are going to check all the other helicopters that are like this one to make sure it’s not going to happen to them too.

“If they have a reason to do so they will say we’d better ground all the others until we know the reason why it happened.”

Asked how investigators will check if there was a technical issue, he said: “They have a number of sensors on board. They don’t have the full black box set up like civilian, commercial operations do, but they do have sensors that have memories so they can check.

“They can also track where the helicopter was and what it was doing and they also listen to tapes of all of the communications between the helicopter and their base and the helicopter and air traffic control.

“The crew may well have said something to either air traffic control or reported to their base about maybe they had some problems.”