Helicopter Blade Accidentally Slices Man To Death During Rescue Mission

A Colombian man on Sunday was killed by helicopter blades as the aircraft accidentally toppled while trying to land during a rescue mission, according to reports.

Ivan Andres Lopez Londono, the head of maintenance at Colombia‘s Helifly helicopter company, had been killed during an attempt to save himself and a pilot who crashed on a hilltop last week in the southwestern Cauca District in Colombia.

The helicopter company confirmed that the second rescue aircraft, an HK 4484, had crashed at approximately 12 p.m., after reportedly suffering a technical issue.

The men were both stranded on a hillside in the remote area for seven days after their helicopter went down. However, they managed to survive for a week before an emergency chopper was sent to retrieve them.

The rescue attempt was one of five missions looking to secure valuable equipment and save the men stranded by the fallen craft.

Video footage taken in the area showed the victim, dressed in a white shirt, flagging down the approaching aircraft alongside the downed helicopter.

As the pilot slowly descends on the hilltop, the helicopter unexpectedly flips over causing the blades to strike Londono before hitting the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Colombian Army General Jorge Herrera confirmed to local news outlet WRadio.

Pilot Juan Carlos Álvarez Hernández suffered a wrist injury and minor bruising during the accident and was rushed to hospital in Popayan, a city in western Colombia. He was the only other worker harmed when the helicopter went down.

Colonel Fabio Rojas, police chief for the Cauca region where the accident happened, explained that technical issues were to blame for the first helicopter crash. Officials believe that the helicopter failed because of an electrical malfunction, which caused the vehicle to self-destruct.

"What we know is that the [first] helicopter suffered a mechanical fault, and another aircraft was sent to transfer its cargo and also sustained mechanical failures that caused it to fall to the ground," he told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.