A helicopter carrying high-level business executives crashed onto a Turkish highway on Friday, killing five people on board, after it hit a television tower in an outlying district of Istanbul, NTV television said.

An official of Kugu Havacilik, a company involved in issuing the license for the helicopter, told Reuters it belonged to the Eczacibasi pharmaceuticals and household products group. Eczacibasi was not immediately available for comment.

The Sikorsky S-76 helicopter had taken off from Istanbul's main Ataturk airport with seven people on board.

CNN Turk quoted local officials as saying the seven included three Turks, two of them pilots, and four foreigners. The DHA agency said four Russians were in the helicopter.

CNN Turk quoted a local official as saying first indications were that a total of five people had been killed. No-one on the ground appeared to have been affected.

The identity of the victims was not immediately clear. </s> ISTANBUL (AP) — Officials say a military helicopter with five soldiers on board has crashed in an Istanbul neighborhood, killing four of them. The fifth soldier was rushed to a hospital with injuries.

Anadolu Agency said the helicopter, which was on a training mission, on Monday hit the roof of a building and crashed in between apartment blocks in Istanbul's Sancaktepe neighborhood, on the Asian side of the city that straddles two continents.

No one else was hurt in the incident.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear. </s> A police helicopter flies over a member of security forces near a courthouse in Mugla, western Turkey, on February 20, 2017 (AFP Photo/Bulent KILIC)

Istanbul (AFP) - A Turkish police helicopter crashed on Tuesday in a mountainous region in the east of the country, killing 12 people on board including police officers and a judge, the interior minister said.

Speaking to journalists in a televised statement, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the crash was an "accident that appears to have been caused by weather conditions".

"Any other outside factor is out of the question," he said, ruling out that the helicopter had come under attack.

The Sikorsky helicopter, whose passengers included seven policemen, one judge and one non-commissioned officer, crashed at around 0840 GMT in the eastern province of Tunceli, the governor's office said earlier in a statement.

The other three people on board were crew members.

No signals were received from the Sikorsky helicopter approximately 10 minutes after it took off.

It is believed to have crashed because of unfavourable weather conditions, the statement from the Tunceli governor's office also said.

In March, seven people were killed, including four Russians, when a privately owned helicopter crashed in Istanbul after hitting a television tower. </s> A helicopter crashed in the outskirts of Istanbul on Friday, reportedly killing at least five people.

The private Dogan news agency said the helicopter, with two pilots, four foreign nationals and a Turkish citizen on board, crashed on the side of a road in the Turkish city's Buyukcekmece district.

The district's mayor, Hasan Akgun, told private NTV television he saw five bodies at the site of the crash.

Pieces of the helicopter were scattered on the road as well as a green area on the side of the road.

Eyewitness Fikret Karatekin, a taxi driver, told CNN-Turk television by telephone the helicopter crashed into the tower before falling on the road.

"It hit the tower and crashed by spinning," he said, adding the road had been closed down. </s> ISTANBUL: A helicopter carrying high-level business executives crashed onto a Turkish highway on Friday after hitting a television tower in an outlying district of Istanbul, NTV television said.

The Sikorsky S-76 helicopter had taken off from Istanbul’s main Ataturk airport with seven people on board.

CNN Turk quoted local officials as saying the seven included three Turks, two of them pilots, and four foreigners. The DHA agency said four Russians were in the helicopter.

CNN Turk quoted a local official as saying first indications were that a total of five people had been killed.

No-one on the ground appeared to have been affected. The identity of the victims was not immediately clear. </s> ISTANBUL, TURKEY: A helicopter carrying an executive of the Turkish Eczabicasi group and four Russians, including the firm’s Russian operations chief, crashed in Istanbul on Friday, killing five of the seven people on board, the company’s chairman said.



The helicopter crashed onto a highway shortly after take-off from Istanbul’s main Ataturk airport. Early media reports suggested it had hit a television tower but the district governor told reporters he was unable to confirm this.

Bulent Eczacibasi, chairman of the company with interests in pharmaceuticals and home products, did not specify who among the five passengers and two crew had been killed; nor did officials give any details of the two who survived.

“We have no information on the details, the cause of the crash will become evident after the evaluations,” Eczacibsi said in a statement.

The road where the helicopter crashed was largely deserted at the time and no-one on the ground was hurt. The highway was closed off to traffic following the crash.

Eczacibasi later released a statement in which it named the seven people on board the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter. It said the helicopter carried one Turkish executive and one Russian administrator from the company, three Russians and two Turkish pilots. </s> Thirteen Turkish troops have died in a helicopter crash in the country’s southeastern Sirnak province.

The Cougar military chopper went down on Wednesday after hitting an electrical power line close to the border with Iraq, killing all on board.

“Our hero comrades in the helicopter fell as martrys,” said a statement released by the Turkish army.

It added that initial investigations show that the crash was due to pilot error.

In March, a helicopter with seven passengers on board crashed in the Turkish city of Istanbul, killing all aboard.

The Sikorsky S-76 helicopter, which is owned by Turkish conglomerate Eczacibasi, came down shortly after takeoff from Istanbul’s Ataturk airport. </s> ISTANBUL — A military helicopter with five soldiers on board crashed in an Istanbul neighbourhood on Monday, killing four of them, officials said. The fifth soldier was rushed to a hospital with injuries.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the helicopter, which was on a training flight, hit the roof of a building and crashed in between apartment blocks in Istanbul’s Sancaktepe neighbourhood, on the Asian side of the city that straddles two continents.

No one else was hurt in the incident, according to a statement from the Istanbul governor’s office.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

The helicopter was returning to Samandira air base, near Sancaktepe, and may have tried to land on an empty plot of land in the neighbourhood after experiencing a technical fault, private NTV television reported.

The helicopter appeared to have turned over and its debris was scattered around the street, video footage from the scene showed. </s> ISTANBUL (AP) — A helicopter crashed on a highway on Istanbul's outskirts Friday after apparently hitting a television tower in dense fog, reports said. All seven people on board were killed, the city's mayor said.

The Sikorsky S-76 was carrying an executive of the Eczacibasi group of companies, four of his Russian guests and two pilots.

Gov. Vasip Sahin said that the helicopter crashed in Istanbul's Buyukcekmece district after taking off from Ataturk Airport, adding that the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Authorities initially recovered five bodies from the crash site, but Mayor Kadir Topbas later said that all seven on board were killed.

Thick black smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site in video shown on Turkish network DHA. Burning debris was scattered across a large stretch of the highway.

Video from a security camera of a gas station showed the helicopter plunging behind a hill, followed by a ball of fire rising to the sky that quickly turned into black smoke.

Video from a helicopter showed rows of rescue vehicles at the crash site and traffic piling up as vehicles were diverted off the highway to other roads.

The DHA news agency said the helicopter's rotor blade hit a vehicle, smashing its windscreen and causing its roof to sink in. Its driver escaped unhurt but in shock, the agency said.

Witness Fikret Karatekin, a taxi driver, told CNN-Turk television by telephone that the helicopter slammed into the tower before crashing on the highway.

"It hit the tower and crashed by spinning," he said.

Authorities, however, didn't rule out a technical fault as the cause of the crash.

The tower, which is no longer used for transmitting television signals but has a restaurant at the top, didn't appear to be damaged.

Eczacibasi is one of Turkey's top conglomerates that is involved in pharmaceuticals and building products. Bulent Eczacibasi, who heads the company, told reporters near the scene that the Russians on board the helicopter were clients who had been invited to visit a ceramics fair. They were being transported to visit the company's factory near the town of Bozuyuk, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Istanbul.

The Turkish national who was killed headed the company's operations in Russia, he said.
A helicopter crash in Istanbul kills five and injures seven.