Cougar AS532 AL helicopter Crash

[Andrea75]

Six Eurocopter Employees Dead In Helo Crash

 

 

Six employees of aircraft maker Eurocopter were killed when their helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of southeast France on Wednesday during a test flight, police and company officials said.

The crash occurred around 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) in a steep section of the Verdon Gorge in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region near the border with Italy, according to local police.

Police said a preliminary investigation suggested the helicopter may have hit an electric cable.

Eurocopter, a unit of European aerospace group EADS , said in a statement that the downed aircraft was a Cougar AS532 AL helicopter and that six people were on board.

It had taken off shortly before the crash from a heliport near the Mediterranean port city of Marseille for a test flight before delivery to a client.

The six people on board were company employees and included test engineers, a Eurocopter spokeswoman said.

Police said search teams were at the site investigating the cause of the crash.

“The accident occurred in a place that’s very difficult to access, which is complicating our work,” Benoit Gounine, a regional police lieutenant, told Reuters.

[Andrea75]

Tragedia nelle gole del Verdon, 6 morti Precipita un elicottero nel Canyon

 

È salito a sei il bilancio delle vittime di un incidente che ha visto un elicottero precipitare sulle ripide rocce che costeggiano le Gole del Verdon nella regione francese della Provenza durante un test di volo. Lo schianto è avvenuto alle 13,30 locali, riferisce la Gendarmeria. L'elicottero era un Cougar (versione civile del militare 'Pumà) di medie dimensioni prodotto da Eurocopter, del consorzio aerospaziale europeo EADS, decollato dall'aeroporto di Marsiglia. Le Gole di Verdon sono un canyon profondo fino a 700 metri. Le vittime erano dipendenti della società