More woe as Italy chopper crash kills 6
Print Edition
THE death toll from an avalanche that swamped an Italian mountain hotel rose to 15 yesterday, with 14 still missing, as a nearby helicopter crash left six people dead and dealt another blow to a region reeling from earthquakes and the heaviest snowfall in decades.
The emergency response helicopter came down in thick fog near Campo Felice, a popular ski resort 120 kilometers east of Rome, during the evacuation of an injured skier.
There were reports of a loud explosion being heard.
“Rescue teams have reached the wreck of the helicopter and they found the bodies of the six deceased in the snow,” a police spokesman said.
Campo Felice, located at 710 meters altitude but with pistes up to just over 2,000 meters, is close to the epicenters of earthquakes that struck the region last Wednesday and were followed by the killer avalanche.
Police said there was no apparent link between the crash and the seismic activity or the avalanche. But it came as firefighters and mountain police grappled with their aftermath.
A team of first responders who had been helping the rescue effort at the Hotel Rigopiano was dispatched to the helicopter crash site but would not have been able to get there before news of the deaths came. The tally of bodies found in the ruins of the Rigopiano rose to 15 on the sixth day of an increasingly forlorn search through the snow-covered wreckage.
Eleven staff and guests survived the disaster, two men who were outside when the avalanche struck and nine people, including four children, who were found on Friday.
Rescuers have refused to give up hope of finding more people alive with morale amongst the exhausted rescuers having been boosted on Monday when three puppies were retrieved alive from under the rubble.
Italian authorities are investigating the chain of events leading to the avalanche to see if the tragedy could or should have been avoided.
A preliminary manslaughter investigation has been opened with the prosecutor in charge looking into whether environmental risks were properly taken into account during the construction and subsequent renovation of the hotel.
Events on the day of the disaster itself, when guests were unable to leave because of snow-blocked access roads, are also in the spotlight.
The local council had only one functioning road-clearance vehicle and had deployed it to reach isolated hamlets with elderly residents rather than clearing the road to the hotel.
A second snow plough had broken down earlier in the month and staff were awaiting authorisation to get a 25,000-euro (US$26,800) repair done.
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