Ghana says helicopter crash kills 8 including defense and environment ministers

ACCRA, Ghana — Ghana’s government said a helicopter crash on Wednesday killed eight people including the West African nation’s defense and environment ministers.

The military said the helicopter took off Wednesday morning from the capital, Accra, toward Obuasi, a gold-mining area in the Ashanti region, but went off the radar. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were killed alongside the vice-chair of the National Democratic Congress ruling party, a top national security adviser and crew members.

State media reported the Z-9 helicopter is used as a utility helicopter often used for transport and medical evacuation.

Ghana’s government described the crash as a “national tragedy.”

Wednesday’s crash was one of Ghana’s worst air disasters in more than a decade. In May 2014, a service helicopter crashed off the coast, killing at least three people. In 2012, a cargo plane overran the runway in Accra and crashed into a bus full of passengers, killing at least 10 people.