Haiti aid chopper crashes, two Americans killed
Two Americans were killed when their helicopter, which was participating in aid and recovery operations in earthquake-hit Haiti, crashed in the Dominican Republic, aviation authorities said on Friday.
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The U.S.-registered helicopter hit a mountain and burst into flames on Thursday evening at Restauracion, close to the Haitian border, some 175 miles (280 km) northwest of Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's National Institute of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
The institute identified the dead Americans as James Jaloe and John Ward. But it gave no more details of their mission or cargo.
It said the helicopter was heading to Santo Domingo from the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and that it had been helping with aid operations for survivors of the quake.
The U.S. government and U.S. aid and charity groups have been spearheading a huge international relief operation to help hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless survivors of the Haitian quake that struck on January 12.
(Reporting by Manuel Jimenez; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Will Dunham)