Four people were killed and 11 injured when an Italian military helicopter serving with the European Union’s peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina crashed on Thursday.
The aircraft was a CH-47 Chinook operated by the Italian contingent of EUFOR, and it came down during what Al Jazeera reported was a routine training exercise in the Brcko District, about 180 kilometres north of Sarajevo. Hiru News placed the crash near the village of Gorice, citing the Italian news agency ANSA.
Fifteen people were aboard. The four who died were two Italian soldiers and two volunteers of the Italian Red Cross military corps, according to Italy’s defence ministry. All those on board were Italian nationals. EUFOR said the 11 injured are receiving treatment and are in stable condition; Hiru reported that none of their injuries is life-threatening.
“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.
EUFOR said it “is conducting a full and thorough investigation of the incident and will release more information as it is verified, and when appropriate.”
Operation Althea
The EU force has maintained a peacekeeping presence in Bosnia since 2004, when it took over from a NATO-led force. Its mandate under Operation Althea is to oversee implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1995 Bosnian War. The mission currently fields between 1,000 and 1,500 troops.
Training, not an operational sortie
The two filings differ on what the helicopter was doing. Hiru describes the aircraft as having been “part of” the EU peacekeeping operation, which reads as an operational flight; Al Jazeera states specifically that it was on a routine training exercise. The distinction matters — the helicopter belonged to the Althea contingent, but the flight itself was training. This report follows Al Jazeera.
Photographs published by Italian media, and the image accompanying this report, show the tandem-rotor airframe overturned and broken into several sections, with recovery personnel in Italian camouflage working at the wreck.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the time of the crash, names any of the dead, or reports a suspected cause. Neither says whether the aircraft was carrying cargo or equipment, how many Italian troops are currently deployed with EUFOR, or whether the mission’s flying operations have been suspended pending the investigation.
