A United Nations helicopter with four crew members on board crashed near Bantu in South Sudan and killed three Russian citizens on Wednesday, United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported. The cause of the crash has yet to be determined and the investigation is still ongoing.

Reports said that the aircraft owner, Russian airline UTair, claimed in their initial information that the UN Mi-8 cargo helicopter was shot down as it passed over the capital of oil-rich Unity State, the area where the conflict between rebels and government forces occurred.

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According to UNMISS, they lost contact with the cargo helicopter after it went down 10 kilometers south of Bentiu. The helicopter was shot down with a surface-to-air fire, UTair said citing the preliminary investigation.

Spokesperson for the governor of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state Akol Ayom Wek said that the South Sudanese rebel commander Peter Gadet warned the UNMISS not to fly over the Unity State region. Wek declared that the rebel troops shot down the aircraft with a rocket-propelled grenade, reports said.

However, at peace talks in Ethiopia, the rebel delegation denied the accusations of the South Sudanese government. The area where the aircraft was reportedly shot down is under the government-held territory, the rebel said in a statement.

United Nations officials told the media they could not comment on the helicopter shot down reports because they are still investigating the case. A search and rescue team was sent to the crash site on Wednesday, UNMISS said.

Based on some sources, the commander, the flight engineer and the flight attendant were killed in the crash, but the second pilot survived with minor injuries. The survivor was immediately transferred to the Medicins Sans Frontieres hospital for treatment, Spokesperson for the UN secretary general in New York Stephane Dujarric said.

Because of the incident, UTair announced that they will temporarily stop flying over the region of Wau to Bentiu in South Sudan.

TagsSouth Sudan, United Nation, UNMISS, Russia