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2 killed and 3 hurt in helicopter emergency landing in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A civilian helicopter made an emergency landing Tuesday in a grassy clearing near a village east of the Philippine capital, killing two people and injuring the three others onboard.

It was not immediately clear what caused the forced landing in clear weather about 50 meters (164 feet) from the nearest cluster of houses in a village in Pililla town in Rizal province, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and other officials said.

The Bell 505 helicopter took off from Manila and was enroute to Quezon province, more than 400 kilometers (248 miles) southeast of the capital, when it made a forced landing, aviation officials said.

One person died instantly from the impact of the landing and another died in a hospital. The three others, including the pilot, were brought to a hospital with injuries, Pililla town Mayor John Masinsin and the provincial police told reporters.

Masinsin added without elaborating that two of those onboard were foreigners, including one of the two who died.

“The survivors are still in shock so we cannot extract details from them,” Masinsin told reporters. “We’re prioritizing their recovery.”

Aviation officials said an investigation was underway.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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