Passenger Helicopter With Seven On Board Goes Missing

Italian rescue crews resumed searching on Friday, June 10 for a helicopter carrying seven people, including four Turkish citizens, that went missing in a forested, mountainous area of northcentral Italy.

Its unexpected disappearance has led to a desperate search for its passengers.

According to reports, the aircraf left Capannori Lucca Tassignano airport in Lucca Thursday morning, June 9, for an hour-long journey to Treviso, but it never arrived at its destination.

The flight took off at 9.30am local time, and was expected to land at 10.30am, but it vanished from radars a short time later.

Volunteers are searching for the missing aircraft in what officials describe as vast and largely uninhabited terrain.

According to ABC News, that the helicopter had been hired by a household chemical manufacturer named Roto Court to transport clients to a new plant.

Giuliano Gelain, a director at the company, told Italian news agency ANSA he was “confident” the chopper had not crashed, as it did not send out an emergency signal.

A search of the region around Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna has resumed this morning after being called off last night.

Eczacibasi said its four employees were in Italy to take part in a paper technologies trade fair and were traveling to a tissue paper production facility.

In a statement, the company said it was in contact with authorities in Italy, the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Turkish Embassy in Italy, and expressed hope that it would receive “good news” as soon as possible.