Tokyo, Japan (Web Desk): A rescue helicopter, carrying nine people on-board, has crashed in snow-covered mountains in central Japan during a training flight, leaving all nine people dead, police said Monday.
A Nagano police spokesman confirmed that five bodies were found in the morning inside the wreckage in the central prefecture of Nagano.
While the other four were taken to the nearby hospital in critical condition but could not survive.
Bad weather halted rescue operations until today (Monday).
The cause of the crash was still under investigation. Police said the helicopter, carrying seven firefighters, as well as a pilot and an engineer, lost contact during a mountain rescue training Sunday afternoon.
