Kenya chopper crash kills 4 US tourists

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March 5, 2019

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Source: AFP | 00:08 UTC+8 March 5, 2019 |

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Four American tourists and a Kenyan pilot were killed when their helicopter crashed on a remote island in a lake in northwest Kenya, police said.

The accident occurred in the Central Island National Park in Lake Turkana on Sunday evening, police said in a statement yesterday.

“There were five people onboard, four of them were US citizens and the pilot, Capt Marious Magonga,” the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said.

Magonga was also a pilot for Kenya’s deputy president, William Ruto, who owned the crashed helicopter.

The helicopter “lost contact and crashed” shortly after taking off with a second chopper from Lake Turkana’s Central Island, the statement said.

Rescuers found the wreckage about seven hours later “with no survivors.”

Known as the Jade Sea, Lake Turkana is the most saline lake in East Africa, the largest desert lake in the world and a popular tourist spot.

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