All 14 killed in Peru helicopter crash: official
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 LIMA:
All 14 people aboard a helicopter that went down in the mountains of
southern Peru, including eight South Koreans, are dead, authorities said
Saturday.
"We are enroute to the accident site where the
helicopter and the bodies are located," prosecutor Cesar Guevara, of the
town of Urcos in the southern department of Cusco, told N television by
phone.
Earlier on Thuesday it was reported that a helicopter
carrying 11 South Koreans, two Austrians and a Peruvian pilot had gone
missing in the mountains of southern Peru, police.
The helicopter
left the city of Mazuco in the southeastern region of Madre de Dios late
on Wednesday and set off across the Andes for the tourist hub of Cusco
but never showed up at its destination.
Officials voiced hoped
that the helicopter, run by Heli Cusco, had made an emergency landing in
the remote Hualla Hualla region, which is at an altitude of 4,725
meters (15,500 feet) some 140 kilometers (90 miles) from Cusco.
"We
have information from the company that the aircraft was carrying 11
South Koreans, two Austrians and a Peruvian," Cusco police chief General
Hector Dulanto told AFP.
"We hope the helicopter was able to make an emergency landing."
The Interior Ministry denied reports that the passengers had died.
"No
national police official has provided such information, as the search
and rescue teams have not yet reached the area where the helicopter is
believed to be located," it said in a statement.
A snow storm in
the area was slowing down the rescue effort, the interior ministry said,
highlighting "particular weather and geographic conditions that present
challenges for the operation."
The interior ministry said a
national police mountain patrol was waiting at Cusco airport for the
storm to clear before setting off.
"Operations from the air have
not been possible so far due to weather conditions preventing the
departure of the helicopter that will carry the crew," said Heli Cusco.
Dulanto
said "snowfall at dawn hampered the progress of the patrols," adding
that a police helicopter would join the rescue effort once the storm had
passed.
Local media said the South Korean and Austrian passengers
were tourists likely headed for Machu Picchu, the fabled 15th century
Incan city perched on a mountain high above the town of Aguas Caliente
in the Cusco region.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists descend on the Cusco region every year to visit Machu Picchu.
A
small plane crashed in February 2010 during an aerial tour of the famed
Nazca Lines archeological site in southern Peru, killing the Peruvian
pilot and all six tourists on board.
Five French tourists were
killed in April 2008 when their plane crashed near the Nazca Lines,
prompting the French government to warn tourists against flying in the
country -- a recommendation criticized at the time by Lima. |
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