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UN Officials Die in Mongolia Crash
Investigators on Jan.15 rushed to the site in remote northwestern Mongolia where a helicopter carrying U.N. disaster relief officials crashed, killing nine people including one American, a U.N. official said.
Fourteen others were injured when a Russian-made MI-8 helicopter spun out of control, crashed and exploded on Sunday, United Nations and Mongolian officials said.
Four of the dead were members of a U.N. team sent to inspect heavy snows that have decimated herders' livestock and arrange a U.N.-led relief effort, officials said.
Acting U.N. humanitarian relief coordinator Carolyn McAskie, who was originally scheduled to arrive in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator on Tuesday, will now arrive on Monday to oversee the crash investigation, said a U.N. spokesman in Mongolia, Buren Bayir Chanrav.
The names of the four -- an American, a Briton, a German and a Mongolian -- have not been released as relatives are notified, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
Eckhard said the crash also killed three other Mongolians -- a member of parliament, a photographer and a helicopter technician. The Japanese embassy in Ulan Bator said two Japanese journalists also died.
They were identified as Takahiro Kato, 33, and Minoru Masaki, 35, both of Japan's national broadcaster, NHK.
The team of 40 Mongolian and U.N. officials flew to the site on Monday morning to determine the cause of the crash, Chanrav said. Debris and bodies of the dead still lay where they were scattered by the crash, which will help investigators determine the cause, he said.
The helicopter crashed near Malchin in Mongolia's northwestern corner, about 600 miles from the capital, Ulan Bator.
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