Pilot killed in UAE helicopter crash into sea

AFP | Dubai

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A pilot was killed and another missing after their helicopter crashed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates during a night training flight, authorities said on Friday.

The Bell 212 helicopter went down in the Gulf at around 8:30 pm (1630 GMT) on Thursday after taking off from Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport, the UAE aviation authority said, quoted by the official WAM news agency.

The authority said a crew member "was found dead, while search and rescue operations continue to find the other missing pilot".

They had "crashed off the coast of Umm al-Quwain during a training flight", it added.

The pilots -- an Egyptian and a South African -- had been on a training flight for AeroGulf, the UAE's leading commercial helicopter operator.

The authority did not specify which of the pilots had been found dead.

"The process of recovering the remaining parts of the wreckage is currently ongoing," the authority said.

AeroGulf was founded in 1976 to provide services to the oil and gas industry, before expanding its services to other sectors.

In 2022, a paramotor flyer crashed in Dubai, killing the pilot. The same year, a single-engine passenger plane crashed into a parking lot in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, injuring one person.