An EU peacekeeping helicopter belonging to the Spanish military crashed in Bosnia on Thursday, killing the four service members aboard, two from Spain and two from Germany, officials said.
The cause of the crash near the north-central city of Banja Luka was not immediately known, but it was witnessed by a second Spanish military helicopter, Spain’s Defense Ministry said in Madrid.
Lieutenant Santiago Hormigo Ledesma and Sergeant Joaquin Lopez Moreno, both of the Spanish army, and two German servicemen died in the crash, the ministry said. The helicopter belonged to the Spanish military, the ministry said in a statement.
The helicopter went down around midday, said Lieutenant Commander Kerry Corkett, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force, which is also known as EUFOR.
He confirmed the four service members aboard the aircraft died.
EUFOR said the helicopter took off from Sarajevo on a routine flight, then issued a mayday call half an hour later.
“A second helicopter has confirmed smoke, but due to mountainous and heavily forested terrain nothing more could be confirmed,” a EUFOR statement said. “It is with our deepest sadness that there were no survivors.”
“Their lives were unfortunately cut short whilst actively engaged operating in support of maintaining a safe and secure environment in Bosnia,” Corkett told reporters.
In Berlin, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told the country’s parliament that the accident illustrates “what risks to life and limb are bound together with the mission for peace and stability,” and that he had received the news with great sadness.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was “shocked and saddened” by the crash and conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims.
“The EUFOR mission, currently under the leadership of Spanish Major General Ignacio Martin Villalain, is making an outstanding contribution to the EU military operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Solana’s statement said.
“My sincere appreciation, my profound sympathy and my thoughts are therefore with you at this difficult time,” the statement said.
The crashed helicopter was a Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm BO-105 of German manufacture and was involved in transport operations for the EUFOR peacekeeping force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Spanish ministry said.
An air accident investigation unit was heading to the scene of the crash, the ministry said.
Spain has 250 soldiers in the peacekeeping force in Bosnia, and Germany has 130.
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