THE Eagle landed at an East Lancashire dry ski slope - and managed to keep his feet safely on the ground.

Olympic fall-guy Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards dropped in for the official launch of a new £170,000 nursery slope at Ski Rossendale.

The super-flop of the 1988 Calgary Games, when he became the fans' favourite through his glorious failures in ski jump competitions, joined about 30 youngsters on the slopes as they tried out the new facility.

More than 100 children took advantage of an open day to mark the launch of the new nursery slope, which took around seven weeks to complete and includes the first Sunkid Travelator to be used in this country - at a cost of £25,000.

Ski Rossendale senior duty manager Mike Hopkins said: "It uses a different type of surface called Snowflex and its main advantage is that it is a complete surface as opposed to the old honeycomb style. It's backed by two to three inches of foam so that when you fall it takes away the bump and makes the surface safer and more enjoyable.

"It's been very popular with snowboarders who would normally use the big slope because it's so attractive. They are using it to try new tricks.

"The travelator is similar to the ones in airport terminals when you've got to travel a long way but this one is on a slant."

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