Six passengers killed, eight severely wounded in North Waziristan helicopter crash

• Accident occurred due to technical reasons: Mari Petroleum spox.
• Copter was carrying 14 passengers including three foreign pilots.
• Ill-fated crashed aircraft was providing personal transportation.

ISLAMABAD: At least six people have been killed after a chartered helicopter carrying 14 passengers crashed in district North Waziristan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Mi-8 helicopter crash has left at least eight people injured.

The chartered helicopter — that belonged to Mari Petroleum Limited, a public limited company — crashed due to technical reasons near an oil field, said the company's spokesperson, stressing that the accident had nothing to do with the security situation.

Providing details of the incident, the spokesperson said that the ill-fated aircraft was providing personal transportation in the Shewa Waziristan block.

The injured persons are being transferred to a nearby hospital and relief operations, by the Pakistan Army and others, are underway, the spokesperson added.

Geo News learnt from sources that the three foreign pilots are from Russia and that the wounded have been shifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Thal.

The accident, the sources added, occurred after the copter suffered technical difficulty as soon as it took off and met the fatal accident after its tail rotor hit the ground during an emergency landing.

Meanwhile, an investigation has been initiated into the unfortunate incident.

Helicopter crashes are not uncommon in Pakistan. In September last year, two Pakistan Navy officers and a solider were martyred after their copter crashed in Balochistan's Gwadar.

The Pakistan Navy spokesperson revealed that the mishap happened due to a technical issue during training.

"As a result of the crash, two officers and one sailor of the Pakistan Navy embraced martyrdom," the spokesperson said, adding that the Pakistan Navy had initiated an investigation into the incident.