A MARRIED couple have been airlifted to safety after the husband plunged 100 meters down an icy Helvellyn slope today (March 11).

A multi-agency operation was launched to rescue the 50-year-old man, who suffered head and chest injuries, and his wife, who was left cut and bruised after she also fell ‘some distance’.

They were walking on the main path up Helvellyn near the top of a series of zigzags when they encountered ice and slipped down a steep slope, hitting rocks in the fall at 12pm.

A passing doctor offered help before the pair from Walsall were attended by Keswick Mountain Rescue Team and the Great North Air Ambulance, which dropped off its paramedic.

They were treated on the site of the accident at Brown Cove Craggs before being airlifted to a waiting ambulance which took them to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

The man’s condition is said to be stable.

The rescue mission took almost two and a half hours and had the assistance of 15 members of the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team.