Uzbekistan helicopter crash kills five
 

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...6a6a20060219ah

February 18 2006 at 02:41PM

Tashkent - A civilian helicopter crashed in Central Asian Uzbekistan on Saturday killing all five people on board, an official with the mining company that chartered the aircraft told Reuters.

The Russian-made Mi-2 helicopter crashed at 9.10am (04h10 GMT) near the town of Zerafshan, about 500km west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, said the official with the Navoi Metallurgical Combine.

The dead were two crew and three employees of the combine, Uzbekistan's only uranium miner and its biggest gold producer.

One of the three was the combine's chief engineer, said the official, who did not want to be identified.

"Visibility was poor. The helicopter crashed into a small hill. The wreckage was scattered over a radius of 200m," said the official.

A subsidiary of Uzbekistan's national airline operated the helicopter.