Helicopter crash on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro kills five, aviation authority says

A helicopter crashed on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, ⁠killing five people, the civil aviation authority said on Thursday, while ‌local media ‌reported that the aircraft was on ‌a medical rescue mission.

The helicopter crashed near the mountain's Barafu Camp on Wednesday, Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

Mwananchi newspaper and East ‌Africa ‍TV, citing Kilimanjaro region's ‍head of police, Simon Maigwa, ‌reported that the helicopter was on a medical rescue mission.


Among the dead were a guide, a doctor, the pilot and two foreign ‍tourists, Mwananchi cited Maigwa as saying, without giving ‍the ⁠tourists' nationalities.

Mount ⁠Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, is nearly 6,000 meters (20,000 ft) above sea level.

The crash happened between 4670 and 4700 metres, Mwananchi reported.

Around 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually.