Air tragedy in Ecuador, five soldiers and three civilians killed

John

By John

The death toll from a plane crash involving a military helicopter that crashed yesterday in the part of the Amazon inside Ecuador is 8.. The bodies of the five soldiers and three civilians that the helicopter was carrying were found lifeless, as confirmed by Ecuadorian army sources. The three dead civilians were officials of the government's Secretarìa de Gestiòn de Riesgos (SGR) who were bringing humanitarian aid to sections of the Amazon province of Pastaza, hit by floods. Today there will be an attempt to recover the bodies, made impossible yesterday by the weather conditions. The helicopter, a Mi-171E with serial number AAE-485, crashed at 9.36 local time yesterday in the Tiwino sector of Pastaza province, and its remains were identified 5 hours later. An investigation has been opened to determine the causes of the accident.