Peru Air Force helicopter crashes, 3 dead

Lima, Mar 1: A Peruvian military helicopter carryinghigh-ranking army officers crashed in south-central Peru, killing threeof the seven people aboard, an air force statement said.

The air force pilot, an army colonel and a retired army colonelwere killed yesterday when the aircraft crashed in Anco district, inthe Ayacucho region, 220 miles southeast of the capital Lima, it said.

Also on board were an Ayacucho-based army general and colonel, and two additional air force crew members, it said.

The statement did not specify if the survivors were hurt.

The air force aircraft, a Twin Bell 212, was on a mission topatrol a gas pipeline that snakes through the region. An investigationwas under way to determine what caused the crash, according to thestatement.

Once an epicenter of a fierce guerrilla insurgency, the Ayacuchoregion is now a front in the government's anti-narcotics campaign.

Earlier, an air force spokeswoman said the helicopter was carryingsix members of the military, half of whom died in the crash, with theremainder being injured.

The air force identified the retired army colonel who died as anemployee of pipeline company Transportadora de Gas del Peru (TGP),majority owned by Argentine companies Pluspetrol and Techint.

TGP pumps natural gas from southern Peru's Camisea field, thecountry's leading natural gas deposit, through the Andes to Lima on thePacific coast.

Reuters>