Investigators picked through the wreckage Tuesday of a U.S.-owned cargo helicopter that crashed in the Peruvian jungle, killing its five American and two Peruvian crew members, AP reported. The heavy-lift, twin-rotor Chinook BH-234 chopper, owned by Columbia Helicopters in the Portland suburb of Aurora, Oregon, crashed Monday shortly after taking off from the provincial capital of Pucallpa bound for Tarapoto. Witnesses quoted in local media reports said it lost control and spewed smoke before crashing. A local police commander, Miguel Cardoso, told The Associated Press that three bodies were recovered Monday and two more had been located inside the chopper's charred wreckage. He said it appears the three taken to the morgue on Monday had jumped from the chopper, as witness reported. "They have different trauma. It appears they jumped out of the helicopter out of desperation because they have multiple fractures," Cardoso said by phone. Columbia Helicopters' executive vice president, Peter Lance, said from Oregon that the five dead Americans were U.S.-based employees of the company from different parts of the country. He declined to immediately identify them, pending notification of next of kin. Lance said he had no immediate information on what might have caused the crash, adding that the company had dispatched its own investigative team. He was asked about local media reports that the aircraft might have been overloaded. "That's all speculation," said Lance, saying the company is "very careful about not overloading our aircraft."
