Debris lies in the long grass, white smoke is still rising from the wreck. Helicopter horror crash in southern Italy!
The helicopter belonging to the private transport company Alidaunia Air with seven people on board crashed on Saturday. “Unfortunately, there are no survivors,” said Puglia Region Vice President Raffaele Piemontese. There were two pilots in the machine, an Italian doctor and a tourist family from Slovenia – according to Italian media reports, with at least one child.
The accident machine started at 9:02 a.m
By mid-morning, the helicopter had disappeared from radar. Rescue workers later searched in the Apricena area near the Apulian city of Foggia (around 150,000 inhabitants) for the helicopter, to which contact had previously been lost. The military also took part in the search operation, as did the mountain rescue service.
The crashed aircraft is an A109 – a helicopter used in civil and military aviation. The machine took off from the Tremiti Islands at 9:02 a.m. The private flight company offers regular flights between the islands and the mainland.
What role did the weather play in the crash?
As reported by “Rai News”, the emergency doctor had just finished his shift on the archipelago. Instead of going back by ship, as usual, Maurizio De Girolamo († 64) chose the helicopter because of the rough seas.
Puglia’s Vice President Raffaele Piemontese paid tribute to the doctor’s work: “He was always in the service of others.” The mayor of Tremiti, Peppino Calabrese, said: “We are in shock. Nothing like this has ever happened in my 30 years of service.”
Weather conditions may have played a role in the accident. At the time of the flight, which normally lasts 20 minutes, there was thick fog. Experts from the Italian police are now looking for the reasons for the crash.
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