Special forces patrols from the Peruvian Army found on Monday the Air Force helicopter that disappeared on Sunday in the south of the country and confirmed that it suffered an accident in which all 15 people on board died, including seven minors. The wreckage of the aircraft, a Russian-made Mi-17, was found near the town of Chala Viejo, in the southern Arequipa region, where it crashed for unknown reasons around 4:30 p.m. local time (9:30 p.m. GMT) on Sunday, at which time air traffic controllers lost contact with its crew. On board the helicopter, which was traveling from the city of Pisco to Chala to carry out search and rescue operations for people affected by the floods plaguing the Arequipa region, were four crew members and eleven passengers, according to a statement from the Peruvian Air Force (FAP). The pilot of the helicopter was identified as Major Sergio Paúcar, who was accompanied by Lieutenant Luis Huertas, First Sergeant Kamila Chapi Anchapuri, and Sergeant Leiner Aguirre Huamán. Among the passengers was Colonel Javier Nole, along with three other adults, six teenagers, and a three-year-old child. "The institution's High Command expresses its deepest condolences and full solidarity to the families of our brave comrades-in-arms and the passengers who died in this tragic accident," stated the FAP. It added that the Accident Investigation Board has been immediately activated to determine the exact causes of the event. Heavy rains that have fallen in recent days in the southern Peruvian Andes have caused recurrent flooding in Arequipa, one of the country's main cities, due to the overflowing of torrent beds, dry channels through which mudflows derived from these precipitations run. As a result of this, and before this air accident occurred, at least two people had died in the Arequipa region due to these mudflows and floods, while nearly 150 people were reported affected and damage to nearly five hundred homes.
