By Mushtaq Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – At least six people were killed when a charter helicopter crashed in northern Pakistan on Saturday, security sources said.
The two sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the helicopter was chartered by a private company in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
It crashed shortly after take-off in the volatile North Waziristan area near the Afghan border.
Around 14 passengers were on board, including Russian pilots, the sources said, adding that eight people were injured in the crash and hospitalised nearby.
Pakistan’s armed forces and the civilian aviation sector have suffered several air accidents in the past decade. In 2022, a military helicopter on a training exercise crashed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing both its pilots.
A Pakistan International Airlines Airbus jet crashed into a crowded residential district of the southern city of Karachi in 2020, killing most of the 99 people on board.
(Reporting by Mushtaq Ali; writing by Charlotte Greenfield; editing by Mark Heinrich)