A Red Cross helicopter crashed while ferrying food to earthquake survivors in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Thursday, injuring the two South African crew members, officials said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the Puma transport helicopter came down near a heliport in Muzaffarabad, the region’s main city, and was damaged.
”One of our helicopters crashed today on its way from Abbottabad to a village called Bandi near Muzaffarabad. The accident took place at around midday,” said ICRC spokesperson Rashad Akhundov.
”We do not know the reason for the crash. There were only two helicopter crew onboard, one pilot and one crew member, but they survived,” he said.
Both crew members were South Africans, the ICRC confirmed later. Akhundov said the pair were treated by two ICRC nurses and two doctors at the spot and then immediately airlifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Islamabad.
”Their condition is stable but the medical treatment is ongoing,” he added.
One has serious injuries including leg fractures and an abdominal wound while the other has superficial wounds, a doctor at the hospital said. Both were conscious.
The Puma, one of six ICRC helicopters helping with earthquake relief, was chartered from the South African company Starlite. It had been operating in Pakistan since October 18.
A Pakistani official said the helicopter was badly damaged in the crash.
Dozens of helicopters from around the world have transported aid to the isolated region since the devastating October 8 South Asian earthquake, in which at least 73 000 people died.
In January a helicopter chartered by the ICRC for quake work went missing over Afghanistan with seven people on board while returning to its home base in Turkmenistan.
No trace of the Mi-8 transport helicopter or its Turkmen crew was ever found despite a major search by Nato and US forces in Afghanistan.
Six Pakistani soldiers were killed when an Mi-17 helicopter of the Pakistan army crashed during relief operations in Kashmir last October.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that a second wave of winter deaths following the earthquake had been averted, thanks partly to the helicopter relief flights. – Sapa-AFP