One American dead, three missing after helicopter crash on Costa Rica-Nicaragua border
November 17th, 2015 (ICR News) A US man was killed Tuesday and another three people went missing in a helicopter crash on the San Juan River in southern Nicaragua, which defines most of the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Nicaragua’s National Police said.
One of the three missing is also believed to be a US citizen, according to information obtained by ICR News.
Also amongst the missing is believed to be Antonio Lacayo Oyanguren, the former Minister of the Presidency during the administration of former Nicaraguan president, Violeta Barrios, according to the Nicaraguan daily, El Nuevo Diario.
The pilot of the helicopter also remains missing.
The fatality, whose name was not immediately available and whose body has now been recovered, was traveling in the aircraft from San Carlos to Managua when it plunged, apparently shortly after takeoff, into the San Juan River in the southernmost part of Nicaragua, the deputy chief of the National Police, Francisco Diaz, said.
The accident occurred at sunrise Tuesday for unknown reasons, according to authorities of the Nicaraguan Institute of Civil Aviation, or INAC.
“At times like this we launch a search and rescue mission with the collaboration of the army and air force,” INAC director Carlos Salazar said on state media.
EFE contributed to this report.
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