Uzbekistan helicopter crash kills five

TASHKENT: A civilian helicopter crashed in Central Asian Uzbekistan on Saturday killing all five people on board, an official with the mining company that chartered the aircraft told reporters.   

The Russian-made Mi-2 helicopter crashed at 9:10 a.m. (0410 GMT) near the town of Zerafshan, about 500 km (310 miles) west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, said the official with the Navoi Metallurgical Combine.   

The dead were two crew and three employees of the combine, Uzbekistan's only uranium miner and its biggest gold producer.   

One of the three was the combine's chief engineer, said the official, who did not want to be identified.    

"Visibility was poor. The helicopter crashed into a small hill. The wreckage was scattered over a radius of 200 metres (feet)," said the official.   

A subsidiary of Uzbekistan's national airline operated the helicopter.