ITALY, Jan. 24 (UPI) — A helicopter, believed to be carrying five rescue workers and an injured skier, crashed Wednesday near the site of last week’s avalanche in Italy, officials said.
Although the incident had no connection to the earthquake-provoked avalanche which buried a resort hotel and killed at least 14 people, the helicopter crashed about 60 miles away. Flying in a dense fog at an altitude of about 2,000 feet about mountainous central Italy, it fell after picking up a skier injured at the Camp Felice ski resort, about 75 miles east of Rome. The helicopter was in the fleet of Italy’s national ambulance service.
The crashed helicopter was discovered by an on-foot rescue team which used infrared beams to spot the wreck due to the fog. The Italian broadcaster RAI said it was found in an area known as the Old Mine, a spot difficult to reach, several miles from Campo Felice. People nearby said they heard a loud explosion, presumably the crash. Those aboard the helicopter have not yet been found or identified.
“The area where it came down is hard to access at the best of times, and thick fog is making it even more difficult,” a local police spokesman told the BBC. “Several teams are trying to get there.”
