EU force helicopter crash kills four in Bosnia

EUFOR confirms CH-47 Chinook helicopter crash in Bosnia, with four Italian nationals confirmed dead. EUFOR confirms Chinook CH-47 helicopter crash in Bosnia, with four Italian nationals confirmed dead. Four people belonging to the European Union Force in Bosnia (EUFOR) have been killed after an Italian military helicopter conducting a training operation crashed. EUFOR said a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during “routine training” in the Brcko region on Thursday, about 180km (110 miles) north of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo. A total of 11 people were injured in the crash, EUFOR said, adding that all the injured are receiving treatment and are in stable condition. The Italian government said in a statement that all those on board the military helicopter were its nationals.

The victims were two soldiers and two Red Cross volunteers, according to the Italian defence ministry. “At this moment of immense grief, my thoughts go first and foremost to the families of our fallen, to whom I extend my personal condolences and those of the entire defence establishment,” Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said. Bosnian media outlets published photos of the wreckage showing the helicopter overturned on the ground in a flat field. A spokesman for Brcko hospital told the AFP news agency that there were 15 people on board at the time of the crash, which initially killed three