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Subscribe to RSSA helicopter carrying seven people crashed in Peru's Amazon jungle and all aboard perished, a judicial official said on Monday. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Updated at 7 p.m. ET: Seven employees of U.S.-based Columbia Helicopters were killed in a helicopter crash on Monday in Peru's Amazon jungle, the company said on Tuesday.
Columbia, known for its tandem rotor cargo helicopters that are used in logging and oil exploration work, said four of the employees were based in the United States and three in Peru.
"This is a very sad day for Columbia Helicopters," said Michael Fahey, the president of the company from Portland, Oregon. "We may operate globally, but we are still very much a family."
Fox12 Oregon identified those who died in the crash: Dann Immel, of Gig Harbor, Wash., co-pilot Igor Castillo, of Peru, maintenance crew chief Edwin Cordova, of Melbourne, Fla., mechanic Luis Ramos, of Peru, mechanic Jaime Pickett, of Clarksville, Tenn.; senior load manager Darrel Birkes, who lived in Peru but was originally from the Portland, Ore. area; and load manager Leon Bradford, of Utah.
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The helicopter crashed minutes after taking off from Pucallpa, about 485 miles east of Lima, on a flight to Tarapoto. It apparently tried to drop cargo as it lost power, and at least three people leapt from the aircraft, Peru's La Republica newspaper, citing witnesses, reported on Tuesday.
There were no survivors, a Peruvian judicial official said.
Local media reports initially said on Monday that those on board worked for Petrominerales Ltd, a Canadian-based oil exploration firm focused on Latin America. Petrominerales later denied those reports.
Columbia said it would work with witnesses and authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the crash.
Reuters contributed reporting to this story.
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Leave a Comment:
I just had to be first for once !!!
cheater, i should have been first
well, it was my first time LOL !!!
Doesn't count if you don't comment on the article. It's the rules.
Good for You TommY! How does it FEEL to be ON TOP! But 54Buick's RIGHT!
Condolences
chopper 7 went splat !
Somebody tell the moron who wrote this article Colombia the country is spelled with an O not a U.
Someone tell this moron that they are talking about the helicopter operating company called "Columbia Helicopters." Do some research before you do any accusing.
@Matthew Pierce: A little bit of research indeed would be helpful, as that would show you that they are only operating helicopters, not manufacturing (yet). They are flying commercial versions of the Boeing Rotorycraft Systems (fka Boeing Vertol) CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
The bought the type certificate for those machines, but so far are only doing maintenance, not any production from scratch (contrary to Erickson Air-Crane, which is building new S-64s from scratch for a few years now)
I certainly agree with Matthew Pierce's comment. So I will ask you r-a-quint(?); who taught you how to read? (Such as, who taught you to read so much into a simple statement as Matthew made?) Additionally, r-a, you should learn to use the spellchecker if you can't learn how to spell simple words! And furthermore, r-a, it might help if you took some English usage classes.
they were not talking about the country of colombia they were talking about the us based columbia helicopters company
Columbia Helicopters is correctly spelled with a U, not an O. I am a former co-pilot of theirs with some BV-234 experience and a lot of BV-107/CH-46 time. CHI indeed is a manufacturer, having purchased the Type Certificate from Boeing-Vertol for both the BV-107 and BV-234. They can also manufacture T-58 engines for the BV-107.
When I worked there they could fab complete fuselages and manufacture 3000 psi hydraulic servos from scratch. They were working on producing rotor blades and gearboxes when I left. I have seen helos that any other company would have written off as a total loss after a mishap rebuilt in their shops to better than new condition. We used to joke that as long as the data plate survived the fire, they could "repair" it.
I very much want to know what brought this Chinook down. When I worked for CHI their maintenance was superb and their BV-107s had better flying qualities than any military CH-46 I ever flew, even though all of their helos had vastly more hours on them than the military versions I flew. The Chinook is a big muscular helo that I have a great affection for and I hate to see anyone die like this in an aviation mishap.
PublicSpeech- Brush up on punctuation and sentence structure before you criticise others.
wow
Yes, wow, dmanj. You must think that thing you are smoking is really good!?
116 people died on U.S. highways yesterday and THIS makes news?
Yeah , because none of the 116 were in a helicopter.
It is news because per what ever stat it may be per hour, per person, or per mile it is safer to be in a flying vehicle than it is to be in an automobile.. you are less likely to be in an accident.. allthough if you do have an accident you are more likely to be hurt worse (like killed) ... does that make sense.. ???
Don't Go to Tha CHOPPA!
hate how she called it a she'nook
Time to ban helicopters so that this sorta thing can never happen again!
Give the libs time. They'll figure out a way.
And that is why we should ban anything that flys.
7 people are dead and most of these comments are disgusting me because they reek with flippy tongue.
If your bored -go jack off or volunteer somewhere making a difference.
Your a waste on these pages.
I would agree, but do you think calling them out makes a difference, or makes you a better person?
I called them out in hopes it MIGHT.
I'd like to think it makes me a little better, yeah.
Do YOU feel better?
Ban Helicopters.
where is Joe Biden on this? It must have had a clandestine load of assault rifles on board courtesy of BATF.
On a lighter note...how many people were gunned down/slaughtered in Chicago on Monday? No news?
I hope the oil company takes care of their loved ones.