No survivors in Peru helicopter crash

All 14 people aboard a helicopter that went down in the mountains of southern Peru, including eight South Koreans, are dead, authorities in Peru have said.

“We are en route to the accident site where the helicopter and the bodies are located,” prosecutor Cesar Guevara, of the town of Urcos in the southern department of Cusco, told N television by phone.

Guevara said a large team of officials were on the way to pick up the bodies of those killed.

On board the Sikorsky S-58 ET which went missing on Wednesday were eight South Koreans, a Czech, a Swede, a Dutch citizen and three Peruvians – two of them crew – according to helicopter owner HeliCusco.

However it could take up to four hours to reach the crash scene, located high in the mountains some 4,900 metres (16,000 feet) above sea level, Guevara said.

The aircraft vanished in a mountain region, on a flight from Mazuco, in Madre de Dios department, to Cusco.

Rain and snow had been major obstacles to the rescue workers until now.

The helicopter lost contact with its base in Hualla Hualla between the towns of Ocongate and Marcapata, near the snowcapped Apu Colque Cruz peak.

In Seoul, the foreign ministry said the South Koreans were engineers and officials from four South Korean companies on their way back to Cusco after conducting aerial surveillance on a possible site for a hydroelectric project near Puno, in southern Peru.

Two officials from the South Korean embassy in Lima were in Cusco to monitor the search and rescue operations.