Helicopter smashes into snowy mountainside in central Italy, killing all six aboard
A helicopter ferrying an injured skier off the slopes slammed into a mountainside in central Italy Tuesday, killing all six people aboard in a new tragedy to hit a region already hobbled by a series of earthquakes, paralysing snowfall and a deadly avalanche.
Some of the dead had recently been helping out with the recovery effort from the nearby January 18 avalanche, colleagues said.
The helicopter smashed to pieces in the snow upon impact, with only the tail propellers and rear section still intact. Rescue crews brought the bodies down in sleds to waiting vehicles.
Visibility at the time was only about 20 metres “and with the snow conditions visibility was practically nothing,” said Marshall Paolo Passalacqua, of the financial police’s Alpine division. “We had a really hard time trying to find the wreckage.”
He confirmed five crew members plus the injured skier had perished.
“They were very good pilots,” said Americo Scarsella, a doctor and colleague of the crew. “Clearly what happened was not foreseeable.”