ANKARA: Four people died when a helicopter crashed into a hospital in southwestern Turkiye on Sunday, the provincial governor said, hinting at thick fog behind the accident though cause is being ascertained.

“The helicopter fell to the ground after having struck the fourth storey of a hospital during take-off,” killing two pilots, a doctor and an employee on board the vehicle, Mugla provincial governor Idris Akbiyik said.

“There was intense fog,” Akbiyik said, adding that the authorities were investigating the cause of the accident.

The helicopter took off in conditions with poor visibility from the roof of the city of Mugla’s hospital en route to the city of Antalya, as seen in images broadcast by the NTV television channel.

The chopper can then be seen drifting in the fog several minutes after take-off, before crashing into an empty field next to the hospital it hit, Turkish media reported.

The accident comes just under two weeks after six soldiers were killed when two helicopters collided during an army training exercise in Turkiye’s southwestern Isparta province. At the time, the defence ministry did not specify what caused that crash.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2024