Investigators head to Sierra Leone to probe UN helicopter crash

Teams of investigators from the United Nations and the Russian Federation are on their way to Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, to open an official investigation of yesterday’s helicopter crash that apparently killed two dozen UN workers, a spokesman for the world body said today.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) continued recovery operations today, though hampered by near-inaccessible jungle. UN troops managed, nonetheless, to secure the site where the Russian MI-8 plane crashed not far from the town of Yengema, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told journalists at UN headquarters.

The 24 presumed dead included 14 members of Pakistan’s UNAMSIL contingent, one member of the Bangladeshi contingent, six civilians and three crew members, he said.