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 radar in Castelpagano di Apricena, a rural area in the Puglia region, triggering a search by the air force and firefighters.
The vice-president of the Puglia region, Raffaele Piemontese, later indicated that the helicopter had been found and that the seven people on board had been killed, according to the daily. Corriere della Sera.
Bad weather conditions
Among the dead is a family of four from Slovenia, including a 13-year-old girl, the newspaper said. The other victims are a local doctor and the two pilots of the helicopter, according to the same source. The helicopter, which was flying between Foggia, Puglia, and the Tremiti Islands, off the Italian coast, a daily connection, encountered poor weather conditions.
The islands’ mayor, Peppino Calabrese, told the media that the doctor had decided at the last minute to take the helicopter rather than the ferry “due to the bad conditions at sea”. “Our community is in shock. Nothing like this has happened in thirty years of service,” he said.