Share and Follow
TWO members of the German Armed Forces have been killed and another remains missing after a helicopter crash in Saxony.
The civilian chopper, operated by the Bundeswehr, went down on Tuesday morning near the Golzern gauge station on the Mulde river.
The search for the missing crew member continued overnight, with the German Air Force deploying a Eurofighter equipped with a high-resolution reconnaissance pod to scour the crash site.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed the deaths, describing the crash near the eastern town of Grimma as a tragedy.
One crew member remains unaccounted for, according to The Brussels Times.
Air Force Commander Holger Neumann said the loss marked “a dark day for his troops,” adding that the highly experienced crew had set off from base at 9 am for what was meant to be a routine training flight.
According to the Defence Ministry, the helicopter went down during a test flight.
By Tuesday evening, Pistorius said around 200 emergency personnel were on site, while a military security zone had been established to aid rescue efforts and investigations.
The cause of the deadly crash remains unclear, but German outlet Bild reports that steel cables stretched across the Mulde may have played a role.
The thick supporting cables, part of a cable crane system used to measure water flow at the gauge station, reportedly sag slightly due to their massive weight — one alone weighing around four tons.
Karin Bernhardt, press spokesperson for the Saxon State Office for the Environment, Agriculture and Geology, told Bild: “Both devices must be moved in or on the water to various positions across the entire waterway.
“This is done using a permanently installed cable crane system.”