Copter Crash Kills 8 Returning From UN Terrorism Conference – Chile Chief of Police Among Dead

At least eight people including Chile’s chief of police were killed Thursday when a helicopter crashed into a building in a busy neighborhood of Panama City, officials said.

Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro said that visiting Chilean officials were aboard the helicopter when it crashed, causing “a considerable number of mortal victims.”

In Santiago, Chile’s Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma confirmed that the the fatalities included the head of Chile’s national police, Jose Alejandro Bernales, and his wife, as well as four other Chileans.

Panamanian police confirmed the death of two Panama nationals.

But officials had not yet released an official death toll amid an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Civil aviation sources said that at least 12 people including three crew members were aboard the aircraft, belonging to Panama’s National Air Service.

Bodies covered in blue blankets were visible at the scene of the accident, and several people were rushed to hospital, authorities said.

Eyewitnesses told local media that the helicopter pitched wildly before plunging and starting a fire in the building it hit.

Police cordoned off the area and the mayor urged people to stay away from the area to “avoid more deaths.”

Source