The aircraft carrier involved in a training exercise with a Royal Navy helicopter that crashed into the Channel has been seen carrying out additional exercises off the Dorset coast.

As reported by the Echo, a member of Royal Navy personnel has sadly died after an Mk 4 Merlin helicopter was ditched in the Channel.

The Ministry of Defence revealed that the helicopter ditched while conducting a night-flying exercise with HMS Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Today, Friday, the aircraft carrier was spotted passing Portland Bill to carry out live firing exercises.

It is understood that the aircraft carrier is carrying out the exercise off of the west Dorset coast.

The BillWatch group captured an impressive video of the boat, just off of Portland this morning.

Following the tragic incident which saw a member of naval personnel lose their life, the ministry of defence released a statement.

According to the MOD, there were three crew members on board the aircraft yesterday (Thursday, September 5), and two of them were rescued and taken to hospital.

In a statement, the Royal Navy said: "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.

"The incident involved a Merlin Mk4 helicopter in the English Channel near Dorset that ditched while conducting night flying exercises with HMS Queen Elizabeth. There were no other fatalities or serious injuries."

An investigation into the cause of the incident is taking place.

READ MORE: Crew member dies after navy helicopter ditches in sea off Dorset coast

READ MORE: Investigation into cause of Navy helicopter crash continues

David Learmount, an expert on aviation issues, called the Merlin Mk4 a ‘sophisticated’ helicopter which is ‘pretty resilient,’ saying it was ‘very unusual’ for such an incident to happen.

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.”