By Xinhua,
Ottawa : Four people were killed Tuesday when a helicopter crashed in a residential area in western Canada’s British Columbia province, local media reported.
All three people on board the chopper died, including two passengers and the pilot. A pedestrian on the ground was also killed, Canadian Television quoted the Transportation Safety Board(TSB) as saying.
The accident happened in Cranbrook, a small community about 840km east of Vancouver. It went down in a residential neighborhood and burst into flames.
Witness Richard Fairchild said that the chopper had barely cleared a large pine tree and “within a second-and-a-half it crashed right in front of us — literally in front of our window.”
“Unfortunately, (the helicopter hit) a pedestrian on the sidewalk,” Fairchild said, adding the helicopter’s fuel then burst into flames.
An official of the TSB said the craft is a Bell helicopter Model 206.