One Dead after Ambulance Helicopter Crashes in Southwestern Japan

Tokyo, April 6 (Jiji Press)--An ambulance helicopter carrying a patient crashed off the coast of Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Sunday, leaving the 86-year-old woman dead, the Japan Coast Guard and others said.

Of remaining five people aboard the helicopter, a doctor in his 30s and a patient caretaker in his 60s were in cardiopulmonary arrest.

The other three--a male pilot, a male helicopter mechanic and a female nurse--have symptoms of hypothermia but are conscious.

The helicopter, operated by SGC Saga Aviation Co., took off from Tsushima Airport at 1:30 p.m. It was scheduled to arrive at a hospital in the city of Fukuoka at 2:15 p.m., but disappeared.

A coast guard patrol boat found the helicopter capsized and floating on the sea surface east of Tsushima shortly after 5 p.m.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]