UN: Spanish military helicopter crashes in rugged area of Haiti; 4 soldiers aboard killed

UN: 4 dead in Spanish helicopter crash in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A Spanish military helicopter crashed in rugged terrain in Haiti on Friday, killing the four soldiers on board, the United Nations said.

The aircraft, identified by Spanish media as a Bell AB-212, crashed in the Fond Verrettes area about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Port-au-Prince near Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

All those aboard were found dead after Spanish and U.S. military teams reached the site, U.N. peacekeeping mission spokesman George Ola-Davies said.

Spain’s Defense Ministry said the chopper was one of four based on a Spanish navy amphibious ship, the Castilla.

Spain has about 450 soldiers in Haiti helping with aid and reconstruction after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that the Haitian government says killed about 230,000 people.

The Spanish troops are not attached to the more than 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The crash site is near the mountain where a U.N. surveillance airplane crashed in October, killing all 11 Jordanian and Uruguayan peacekeepers aboard.