A helicopter
crashed in southern Italy on Saturday, killing all seven people on board,
including a family of Slovenian tourists, Italian media reported.
The helicopter
disappeared from radars in Castelpagano di Apricena, a rural area of the Puglia
region, sparking search efforts by the air force and fire brigade.
The deputy head of
the Puglia region, Raffaele Piemontese, later confirmed it had been found and
all seven people on board had been killed, Corriere della Sera said.
Among the dead were
a family of four from Slovenia, including a 13-year-old girl, the newspaper
said. The other victims were a
local doctor and the helicopter’s two pilots, it said.
The helicopter was flying as part of a daily service between
Foggia in Puglia and the Tremiti Islands off the Italian coast, when it ran
into bad weather.
The mayor of the islands, Peppino Calabrese, told media that
the doctor decided at the last minute to take the helicopter rather than the
ferry “because of the bad conditions at sea”.
“Our community is in shock. Nothing like this has happened
in 30 years of service,” he said.
AFP