Seven bodies found at the site of a helicopter crash in Italy

ROME (Reuters) – Rescuers have found the bodies of seven people killed in a helicopter crash in Italy, local authorities said on Saturday, two days after the plane disappeared from radar screens.

The helicopter had taken off on Thursday from Lucca in Tuscany and was heading towards the northern city of Treviso when it got lost in bad weather over a remote area.

“Rescuers found the seven dead, four of the helicopter’s passengers, four Turkish nationals and two Lebanese nationals, who were on a business trip to Italy, as well as the Italian pilot,” the office of the city governor of Modena said in a statement. statement.

The statement said the helicopter was found in a mountainous area on the border between Tuscany and the Emilia-Romagna region.

Prosecutors cordoned off the area as part of the investigation into the accident.

“We got the coordinates, went to the site and found everything burned. The helicopter is basically inside a ravine, near a stream,” one of the rescuers said in a video clip on the Italian air force’s Twitter account.

Turkish businessmen worked for Eczacibasi Consumer Products, a subsidiary of a major Turkish industrial group Eczacibasi (ECZYT.IS). The company said in a statement that they were both attending an exhibition of paper technologies in Italy. Read more

The helicopter was an AW119 Koala made by Leonardo Defense Group (LDOF.MI)A person close to the matter told Reuters.

ANSA news agency reported that it is owned by transport and aircraft maintenance company Avio Helicopters, based in Thiene, northern Italy.

Avio Helicopters could not be reached for comment.

Additional reporting by Federico Maccioni; Editing by David Clark, Clelia Ozil and Mike Harrison

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