They boarded a helicopter and found whales buried on a secluded beach in Iceland.

Helicopter tourists found dozens of dead whales on an isolated beach in Iceland.

Pilot David Schwarzhans of Reykjavik Helicopters said that he and the pbadengers had counted 50 corpses of pilot whales on the coast of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in the west of Iceland.

"They could have been more numerous, some were already buried in the sand," said Schwarzhans. He said the dead whales were concentrated in one place and said the scene was "very sad".

Cetaceans are thought to have swam to the coast and died of dehydration.

In already known behavior, pilot whales are sometimes blocked in large numbers for reasons that are not fully understood.

Last year, locals managed to move a large group of whales away from the coast on the other side of the peninsula.