Manila, May 17: Six people including a provincial governor were killed when a helicopter crashed on Monday southwest of the Philippine capital, the military, police and the governor’s aides said.
The helicopter carrying Governor Rafael Nantes, two security escorts and a pilot went down in a residential area in Lucena City just moments after taking off, said local police director Chief Inspector Bing Baasis.
All four aboard the aircraft and two people on the ground died were killed when the helicopter crashed into some houses, setting them on fire, said regional military spokesman Colonel Generoso Bolina.
Nantes, governor of Quezon province, was taking the chartered helicopter to a meeting in Manila about 100 kilometres (60 miles) away when the incident occurred, Rizza Salvana, an aide of the governor, told AFP.
The cause of the crash was still not known, police said.
—Agencies