AN East Lancashire policeman is heading the investigation into the Morecambe Bay helicopter crash, which left six people dead and one missing.

Supt Mick Gradwell, who is on Lancashire Police's Force Major Incident Team, is co-ordinating the emergency services' response following the disaster on Wednesday.

Pilots Stephen Potton, from Blackpool, Simon Foddering, from Preston, and passenger Robert Warburton, 60, from Heysham, were killed when the aircraft ditched in the sea at about 6pm.

Three other men, Leslie Ahmed, Alfred Neasham, and John Shaw, from the North East and Scotland, were also killed in the crash. Police said the chances of finding a seventh man, Keith Smith from Stockton-on-Tees, were "slim".

Special prayers are being included at services in Blackburn Cathedral for all those affected by the tragedy.

The Dean of Blackburn, the Very Rev Christopher Armstrong, said the victims, their relatives and others affected would be remembered in prayers during the next few days during Cathedral services, held during the holiday period at 10.30am. and 3pm.

Supt Gradwell, who lives near Blackburn, has headed some of the constabulary's most high profile incidents in the last few years, including the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy in 2004 and the house fire in Accrington which killed six members of the Riaz family in November.

Following the cockling deaths, Mick Gradwell's team scooped the Justice Shield, the top award in the 2006 Justice Awards, for the most exceptional justice performance of the year.

A rescue operation was launched after the Eurocopter AS365N came down 24 miles offshore while ferrying gas rig workers back to shore.

Those involved worked for Aberdeen-based energy company Centrica.

Two crew members and five rig workers were aboard. RAF rescue helicopters, coastguard and RNLI crews, and a rig support vessel joined the search.

Supt Gradwell said: "There was a very quick rescue response because people were on the drilling platform waiting to be picked up and they actually saw the helicopter ditch in the sea."

He said the witnesses were being transported back to be interviewed as investigators from the Civil Aviation Authority and other agencies tried to establish the cause of the crash.

Gas was discovered in the area in 1974 and extraction began 11 years later.

There are about 143 Centrica staff working on the platforms at any one time.