Five Swiss Dead in French Chopper Crash
Five Swiss people died and two more were injured on Thursday when their helicopter crashed in France, only a few meters away from a house, French officials said.
The EC130 helicopter came down in the garden of a suburban house near the city of Montbeliard, some 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the Swiss border, French police said.
"Of the seven Swiss people on board, five have died, one has been rushed to hospital with multiple injuries and the seventh person, whose condition is not yet known, is being pulled out," said local police in a statement.
The helicopter had taken off from the airport of Lausanne in Switzerland, and the crash took place a few hundred meters from the Montbeliard aerodrome.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Officials rushed to the scene to coordinate emergency services.
The seven people on board, who have not yet been identified, were six men and one woman aged between 45 and 63.
Local mayor Pierre Schlatter said that witnesses had told him the helicopter "fell like a stone."
With only a few minutes before it was due to land, it dropped "only a few meters away" from the house, added the mayor.
Source: Agence France Presse
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