- By Ajeet Kumar
- Sat, 17 May 2025 11:38 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Several people have died after two helicopters collided mid-air in Finland, BBC reported, citing local police. The civilian helicopters crashed near Eura Airport at around 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT), having taken off together from the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as reported by ERR, confirmed that everyone on board two helicopters died in a crash. However, Finnish police are still trying to verify the exact number of deaths and the identities of the people involved. There were five people in total on the two helicopters—one had two people, and the other had three. The police know who the pilots were, but they are still figuring out the passengers’ identities. The helicopters were found in a forest, about 100 meters apart.
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The helicopters were traveling from Tallinn, Estonia, to Piikajarvi Airfield in Kokemaki, Finland, when the crash happened. Estonian news outlet Postimees said the passengers were Estonian businessmen. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is handling the early investigation.
Fire chief Tuomas Kiskola said they are still working to understand exactly what happened, as the situation keeps changing.
Ari Pullinen from the Pori Aviation Club mentioned that the people on the helicopters were going to Piikajärvi Airfield for a hobby event. The event was supposed to last all day and end on Sunday, with around 20 aircraft and 50 people expected to attend.
An eyewitness, Antti Marjanen, who was doing yardwork, saw the crash. He said the two helicopters were flying close to each other when one suddenly moved and hit the other. He described one helicopter falling straight down “like a stone” and the other spinning as it fell. He didn’t see any smoke or hear anything after the crash.
Flight tracking site Flightradar24 showed two helicopters leaving Tallinn and flying near Eura Airfield when they suddenly stopped sending their location data. One helicopter is registered in Estonia, the other in Austria, but it’s not confirmed if these are the same ones that crashed.
The local rescue team was notified of an air traffic accident near Eura Airfield just after 12:30 PM.
