Five
Americans and two Peruvians died Monday after a helicopter crashed into the
Amazon jungle, according to a judicial official in Peru.
Marco
Ochoa said rescue crews were working to recover the bodies, Reuters reports.
Local
police official Miguel Cardoso said Tuesday morning that three bodies have been
so far been recovered. He says it appears all jumped from the chopper.
The
heavy-lift chopper crashed after taking off from the provincial capital of
Pucallpa, according to Peruvian authorities.
It was owned by Columbia Helicopters of
Portland, Oregon. The company's executive vice president Peter Lance confirmed
the deaths and said all the Americans were employed by the company, but did not
elaborate.
The
company's president, Michael Finley, later told media sources, "This is a
very sad day for Columbia Helicopters. We may operate globally, but we are
still very much a family."
The
names of the 5 Americans that died along with the other passengers on board are
as follows: 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.
Eyewitnesses of the crash told Peru's La
Republica newspaper that the helicopter was trying to get rid of cargo while it
was losing power. The witnesses then said they saw people jumping from the
doomed aircraft. The crashed killed 7 people total, along with 5 Americans.
Authorities will be conducting an official investigation to find out more about
this tragic crash.
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