7 bodies recovered from Italy helicopter crash site

Rescuers have found the bodies of seven people killed in a helicopter crash in Italy, nearby authorities said Saturday, two days after the plane disappeared from radar screens.

The helicopter had taken off from Lucca in Tuscany on Thursday and was heading for the northern metropolis of Treviso when it went wrong in terrible weather in the remote area.

“Rescuers found seven passengers dead from the helicopter, four Turks and two Lebanese nationals, who were on a business day in Italy. As well as the Italian pilot,” the office of the prefect of the city of Modena said in a statement.

The helicopter was found in a mountainous area on the border of Tuscany and Emilia Romagna regions, the statement said.

Prosecutors cordoned off the neighborhood as part of their investigation into the incident. “We got the coordinates, we went to the spot and the whole thing was burnt. The helicopter is basically inside a valley, near a stream,” a rescuer said in a video posted on the Italian air force’s Twitter account.