- UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)
-- Twenty-four U.N. staff and others were killed in a helicopter that crashed
Tuesday in Sierra Leone, the United Nations announced.
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- The helicopter, leased by the U.N. peacekeeping mission
in the West African country, was on an operational flight in the western
part of the country.
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- U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said there were no survivors
"in this tragic incident." Three Russian pilots were among the
dead, she added.
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- The helicopter was a Russian Mi-8MTV-1 from the UTair
company, which has been involved in U.N. peacekeeping operations from East
Timor to Iraq, has been used by the United Nations since the collapse of
the Soviet Union.
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- The helicopter took off from the Sierra Leone capital
of Freetown but never arrived at its destination in the western city of
Kailahun, U.N. sources said. Okabe said it crashed into a hillside in the
jungle.
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- The United Nations has some 11,000 peacekeepers in the
U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone, known as UNAMSIL.
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