A COUPLE have been killed in a helicopter crash near Harrogate.

Police believe the pair died instantly when their Gazelle helicopter came down shortly after taking off from Rudding Park Hotel at 4.30pm on Saturday.

The aircraft crashed in a copse of trees on the luxury hotel's short golf course - only 800 yards from the hotel's helipad.

Emergency services were called, but the couple were pronounced dead at the scene.

Their bodies were recovered from the mangled wreckage of the helicopter yesterday.

Throughout the day, representatives from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, the RAF, the Royal Navy and the Army tried to establish the cause of the accident.

The couple have been named as 43-year-old Paul Spencer and his wife Linda, 59, of Brighouse, in West Yorkshire, who were regular visitors to the hotel and had been for lunch on the afternoon they were killed.

They ran the artificial fowers firm Country Baskets.

In a statement, the couple's family paid tribute to them. They said: "Paul and Linda Spencer were a wonderful couple who were devoted to each other and their family.

"They were hugely generous to all around them, often helping people who were less fortunate than themselves.

"From modest beginnings they built a successful business which operated throughout the UK employing hundreds of people.

"Their family is devastated by the tragedy, but can take comfort that at the time of the accident they were in one of their favourite places together and doing something they both loved."

The family has visited the scene and laid flowers. Police officers are now offering them support.

Staff members of Rudding Park Hotel who went to the crash scene to help are also being offered counselling.

Post-mortem examinations on the couple were scheduled to take place at 10am today, at Harrogate Hospital.

Rudding Park Hotel was recently ranked as the 12th most luxurious place to stay in the world.

It counts Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Deep Purple and Archbishop Desmond Tutu among its former guests. At the time of the crash there were around 500 people in the hotel, many of whom were attending a corporate function.

Peter Banks, the hotel's managing director, said some of the staff had been traumatised by the accident and that his thoughts were with the couple's family.