2017 Snowdonia helicopter crash

On 29 March 2017 a Twin Squirrel helicopter crashed in the Rhinog Mountains area of the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. The private aircraft was travelling between Luton in Bedfordshire, England and Dublin in Ireland when it disappeared off radar. Initial searches were detailed to search the sea around Caernarfon Bay and later moved inland when the emergency beacon that is activated by saltwater remained unresponsive.
Five people died in the accident.
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The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS355 Ecureuil 2 (Twin Squirrel) which was owned by Staske Construction company, left from a private address in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, and was bound for Dublin. Radar contact was lost over Caernarfon Bay off the coast of North Wales at the Irish Sea. Initial searches were started at 16:15Greenwich Mean Time on the 29 March 2017 and were conducted over the sea, but later moved inland with the RAF Mountain Rescue joining in the search. The teams were hampered by visibility being as low as in places.
The victims, all Irish, are understood to have been from the Milton Keynes area.<ref name="BBC"/>
On the 30 March 2017, police announced that the crash site of the helicopter had been located and was in "remote and hazardous" terrain in the Snowdonia National Park between Trawsfynydd and Harlech. Five bodies were found at the crash site.<ref name="BBC"/>

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