Five people were killed after their rescue helicopter crashed on a popular climbing route on Mount Kilimanjaro, including two tourists who were being medically evacuated Wednesday evening.
The Christmas Eve accident happened between the peak’s Barafu Camp and the Kibo Summit. The summit of Africa’s tallest mountain is roughly 19,000 feet high, but the crash was closer to a 13,000-foot altitude, local police said.
The helicopter’s pilot, a local doctor, a tour guide and two tourists from the Czech Republic were killed in the fiery crash, according to a statement from the Tanzania National Parks.
Police said the helicopter was picking up the foreigners, who required a medical evacuation on the mountain around the time of the crash.
Aerial photos of the wreckage showed smoke rising from the scattered remnants of the helicopter.
Kilimanjaro Regional Police Commander Simon Maigwa said that the helicopter was owned by the Kilimanjaro Aviation company, which charters medical evacuations.
The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that an investigation had started in accordance with international safety regulations “to determine the circumstances and probable cause” of the accident.
The last recorded aviation accident on Mount Kilimanjaro was in November 2008, when four tourists were killed after their plane crashed near the mountain’s Mawenzi peak. The pilot was seriously injured but survived, the Australian Broadcast Corporation reported.
Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in Africa and attracts upward of 50,000 tourists annually.
Many have challenged themselves to climb the daunting mountain for charity or just to prove their might.
In 2019, a squad of officers with the NYPD hiked all the way to the highest peak to raise money for children with cancer.
In 2023, a British veteran who had his legs and right arm amputated climbed the mountain with a vacuum-sealed burger in his pack. His oddball feat set the Guinness World Record for the world’s highest altitude burger delivery on land.
With Post wires
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