Helicopter with seven occupants crashes in San Juan during wildfire training

A helicopter carrying seven occupants crashed in the remote and difficult-to-access Parque Provincial Ischigualasto in northeastern San Juan, Argentina, on Wednesday. The aircraft was participating in a wildfire training course when it went down. The helicopter was located after activating an emergency locator transmitter, but the health status of the seven occupants and the causes of the crash are still unknown.

According to reports, four of the occupants are provincial officials: the deputy chief of the provincial police, Marcelo Videla; the head of firefighters, Rubén Castro; the director of Civil Protection, Carlos Heredia; and the deputy chief of firefighters, Jorge Carabajal. The other three occupants are not from San Juan.

The rescue operation is taking place in the Caballo Anca field, a vast fiscal property located between the departments of Jáchal and Valle Fértil. This is an uninhabited area, about 20 kilometers from Route 150, with very complex ground access, which is hindering the rescue teams' progress.

The helicopter involved is a Bell 412EP twin-engine model, which made its first flight in 2010 and was registered in Argentina in 2022. It is registered by the company Jasfly and is a model designed for passenger transport, rescues, medical evacuations, and fighting forest fires.