Florida Firefighting Copter Crashes With Four Aboard, No Survivors Reported

Reuters
By Reuters
May 26, 2021US News
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Florida Firefighting Copter Crashes With Four Aboard, No Survivors Reported
A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH 60 Black Hawk helicopter flies over Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 13, 2012. (Alexander Klein/AFP/GettyImage)

One person was killed and no other survivors have been found after a firefighting helicopter with four people aboard crashed during a training exercise in Leesburg, Florida, officials said.

The Sikorsky UH-60 crashed into a marsh near Leesburg International Airport, about 35 miles northwest of Orlando, around 4 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Leesburg Fire Department, which responded to the crash, confirmed one death, but said it had not located any survivors.

“The crash appears to be a total loss,” the department said on Facebook on Tuesday evening, adding that it had gotten the fire under control.

The posting included a picture showing a plume of black smoke coming from vegetation beyond a taxiway of the airport.

The National Transportation Safety Administration said in a statement that it was sending investigators to the scene.

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