An emergency rescue helicopter crashes in a lake near the Romanian seaside resort of Mamaia, four dead

A helicopter belonging to Romania’s emergency rescue unit SMURD crashed on Monday, December 15, in the Siutghiol lake near the Black Sea resort of Mamaia. The four people who were in the helicopter, the pilot, co-pilot, a doctor and a nurse, all died, as they couldn’t be saved in time. They apparently survived the crash and even cried for help, according to the story of one eyewitness, but could not be rescued in time. According to an official report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the accident was announced at the emergency number at 16:11 and the first emergency crew reached the lake at 16:30. Moreover, when the rescue units arrived at the scene, they could not start the search immediately as their motorboat didn’t start, so they started rowing to get to the crash point, according to local media. The first boat reached the site of the crash at around 16:45. The doctor was the first to be found and brought to shore, by a fisherman’s motorboat. She was in cardiac arrest, but the emergency unit at the site managed to resuscitate her and sent her to the hospital in Constanta, where she died a few hours later. Searches for the other three members of the crew went on into the night. The co-pilot was the second to be found. He was strapped to his seat at a depth of some six meters, according to divers who found him. The low visibility in the water and the low temperature, as well as the dark, made the search very difficult. The pilot was found close to midnight and the nurse was only found in the morning. The helicopter was apparently returning to base after a mission. More than 180 people, including divers, firefighters, emergency doctors and police were involved in the rescue mission, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This is the second aeronautical tragedy in Romania in less than a month, after a military helicopter crashed in Sibiu in November killing eight of the ten crew members. The helicopter’s pilot, who was initially saved, died two weeks later in the hospital, due to the injuries. editor@romania-insider.com