Helicopter crashes into mountain in Switzerland: three dead, but also three survivors

Helicopter crashes into mountain in Switzerland: three dead, but also three survivors | Abroad

UPDATEThree people were killed in a helicopter crash in the Swiss Alps on Tuesday. Three other passengers were injured.

LOOK. The helicopter wreckage was located on the Swiss mountain Petit Combin

The helicopter crashed on the northern mountainside of the Petit Combin mountain in the canton of Valais, in southwestern Switzerland. The helicopter was taking a mountain guide and some heli-skiers to a spot high in the mountains, but crashed near the landing site.

When the helicopter reached the top of the 3,668 meter high mountain, things went wrong. The plane slid down the slope, police reported. The cause of the accident is not yet known.

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The helicopter contained the pilot, a mountain guide and his four clients. Two of the injured were quickly treated on the mountain before being taken to hospital in Zion. A third person was also rescued. The other three occupants of the plane were found dead, police said.

Already the third accident since mid-February

According to local media, seven helicopters were called in for the rescue operation. The regional newspaper ‘Le Nouvelliste’ reports that this is already the third helicopter accident in Valais since mid-February.

Heli-skiing is an activity that originated in Canada and has been practiced in more and more places around the world since the 1970s. Switzerland is estimated to have as many as 15,000 heli-skiing flights per year, most from Zermatt, which is 30 kilometers east of the Petit Combin. Three skiers were recently killed by an avalanche near Zermatt.