Helicopter crashes into Turkish hospital, four dead

Ankara: Four individuals were killed when a helicopter crashed into a hospital in southwestern Turkey on Sunday, December 22. The provincial governor attributed the accident to thick fog.

“The helicopter fell to the ground after having struck the fourth storey of a hospital during take-off,” killing two pilots, a doctor and an employee on board the vehicle, Mugla provincial governor Idris Akbiyik said.

“There was intense fog,” Akbiyik said, adding that the authorities were investigating the cause of the accident.

The helicopter took off from the roof of Turkey hospital in poor visibility en route to Antalya, as seen in images broadcast by the NTV television channel.

The chopper can then be seen drifting in the fog several minutes after take-off, before crashing into an empty field next to the hospital it hit, Turkish media reported.

The incident occurred less than two weeks after six soldiers died in a collision between two helicopters during an army training exercise in Turkey’s southwestern Isparta province. The defence ministry did not specify the cause of that crash.

(With inputs of PTI)