Police helicopter carrying 12 people, including seven police officers, a judge, a sergeant and three crew members, has crashed in Turkey's eastern Tunceli province. A Sikorsky S-70 Blackhawk helicopter crashed and 12 people on board martyred in Pülümür district on account of digors of weather.
ALL 12 PEOPLE ON BOARD MARTYRED
Rescue teams have reached the wreck of a helicopter that crashed in eastern Turkey earlier Tuesday, martyring all 12 people on board.
The helicopter -- which carried seven police officers, one judge, and one army sergeant along with three crew members -- may have crashed due to bad weather conditions, the Tunceli Governor's Office said in a statement earlier in the day.
* Map of Turkey locating the Pulumur district of Tunceli province, where a police helicopter crashed Tuesday
The Sikorsky-type copter lost communications 10 minutes after taking off at 11.40 a.m. local time
SOYLU BLAMED CRASH OF HELICOPTER ON BAD WEATHER CONDITION
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that the helicopter disappeared at 11:43 a.m. local time (0840GMT) after it took off from the eastern Tunceli-Pulumur mountainous area about eight minutes earlier. The rescue teams had to climb for over two hours to reach the wreckage, at around 4:34 p.m., said Soylu.
The crash site was an area close to the village of Sarigul, at an altitude of almost 2,500 meters, Soylu said.
"The heavy snow and rain has reduced visibility to about 300 meters," he said, adding that the rescue teams couldn't reach the area by helicopter. Soylu also blamed the crash of the Sikorsky-type helicopter on bad weather conditions.
GOVERNER ANNOUNCED BAD NEWS
Tunceli Governor Osman Kaymak announced that there were no survivors of the crash, and that the bodies of the passengers and crew members were found by three rescue crews.
RESCUE CREWS ALSO BATTLED WITH POOR WEATHER CONDITIONS
Military helicopters landed at crash site and rescue crews reached the helicopter wreckage after battling with poor weather conditions for almost four hours.
A military unit and a 42-person team from the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) were immediately dispatched to the area between Pülümür and Ovacık districts for search and rescue operations.
