Italian Rescuers Locate Seven Bodies at Helicopter Crash Site

Seven bodies were located following a helicopter crash in a mountainous area of Italy, the Associated Press reports. 

The bodies were found after a mountain runner said he saw what looked to be part of a helicopter while on Mount Cusna on Saturday morning. Air crews then went to the scene and located the first five bodies before discovering the other two, per Col. Alfonso Cipriano, who is in charge of the air force rescue coordination unit that manned the search. 

The chopper went missing on Thursday as it flew above the province of Modena in the Tuscan–Emilian Apennines during electric storms, per Cipriano. The people on the flight were traveling from Lucca to Treviso to visit a tissue paper production facility, as four Turkish citizens and two Lebanese citizens were on board with the Italian pilot. The Lebanese citizens were later identified as Shadi Kreidi and Tarek Tayah, executives at an international manufacturing and industrial consultancy group who were on a business trip. The Turkish citizens on board worked for Eczacibasi, an industrial group, according to the AP. 

Eczacibasi, with “great pain and sadness,” shared in a statement that its director of factories, director of hygienic papers at its Yalova province factory, director of investment projects, and production director at its Manisa province factory had died in the crash. The crash site was about six miles from where rescuers began looking.