GUATEMALA: 5 PEOPLE KILLED IN UN HELICOPTER CRASH

Описание: (18 Mar 1998) Spanish/Nat

A U-N helicopter crashed on a hillside in western Guatemala on Tuesday, killing at least five people.

The U-N said the helicopter crashed near the village of Pajuil de Aguacatan, about 110 kilometres (65 miles) northwest of the capital.

Local firefighters said four survivors all suffered serious burns.

The helicopter went down in the morning over the Cuchumatanes mountains 110 kilometres (65 miles) northwest of the capital, Guatemala City.

It had been flying staff from the U-N Mission for the Verification of Human Rights in Guatemala (MINUGUA) to talks in the northern department of San Marcos when the accident occurred.

MINUGUA - a group of human rights experts and unarmed military observers - is monitoring the implementation of Guatemala's 1996 peace treaty which ended civil war.

Firefighters said the dead included an Australian, a Bolivian, a Guatemalan, a Spaniard, and Uruguayan.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"It was an air accident and we have not established the cause yet. We do not know what the cause was."
Q: "How is the area where the aircraft fell?"
A: "It is pretty mountainous but accessible by helicopter and car."
Q: (Reporter asks about the passengers' nationalities)
A: "We only know that there was a Spanish woman, one or two Americans, a Guatemalan, an Uruguayan and possibly an Australian."
SUPER CAPTION: Spokesman, Huehuetenango Municipal Firefighters

A spokesman for the two firefighting brigades at the scene said four others aboard survived but suffered burns.

The survivors were an American, a Chilean and two Guatemalans.

They were sent to a military hospital in nearby Huehuetenango - the town from which the helicopter had taken off - and were later moved to private hospitals in Guatemala City.

President Alvaro Arzu had been in Huehuetenango to inaugurate several construction projects and ordered his own helicopter to the accident scene to aid the rescue effort.

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