According to local authorities, four people were killed and one was missing after a private helicopter crashed near Botany Bay on St. Thomas crashed on the US Virgin Islands.
Richard Motta, communications director for the U.S. Virgin Islands government, confirmed that the identities of the four deceased had not yet been disclosed pending notice of their next of kin.
“The Virgin Island Fire Department was the main agency. They set up a rescue effort that turned into a recovery effort at the time,” Motta said.
“There was a fifth person on the flight manifesto,” Motta said. “There is an attempt this morning to seek and rescue, or recover, for the fifth passenger on the manifesto.”
A swimmer told the Virgin Islands Daily News that they saw plumes with black smoke and smelled a chemical odor from the hill where the helicopter crashed Monday afternoon.
The newspaper reports that a local private school canceled classes based on a report that a student and their family were on board.
A spokesman for the Antilles School declined to comment.
Motta said the government would release more information later Tuesday.
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