TWO men suffered minor injuries when a training school helicopter crash-landed on a grassed area near the runway of Newcastle Airport.

One of the men, a qualified pilot, had hired the two-seater Robinson R22 aircraft to take a friend with him for a flight and at the end of the journey experienced a heavy landing.

The accident happened at 12.20pm yesterday and the airport was closed for about 40 minutes while emergency services attended the scene, delaying several flights.

The men were freed from the wreckage and taken by ambulance to Newcastle General Hospital.

The pilot is a 63-year-old man from Northumberland and his passenger a 75-year-old man from Gateshead, said police.

An airport spokeswoman said the cause of the crash was not yet known.

The aircraft, normally used for training purposes, was owned by Northumbria Helicopters, a flight training organisation based at the airport.

Manager Neil Clark said insurers would be called in to assess whether the helicopter, one, of five operated by the firm, could be repaired.

He said the company had never suffered any such incidents before in five years of running flights.

Describing the condition of the two men, he said: ''They both are okay. They were taken to hospital with lower back pains. They took them out carefully because of their backs and both of them were chatting away. They were never unconscious. It was just a heavy land.''

A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: ''The Aircraft Accident Investigation branch have been notified and will be carrying out an investigation."