An Italian Chinook on the EU peacekeeping mission in Bosnia crashes near Brcko, killing four

A training flight ended in a field in northern Bosnia. An Italian Army CH-47 Chinook assigned to Operation Althea, the European Union Force mission that oversees implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, crashed on Thursday afternoon near Gorice, in the Brcko district about 180 kilometres northeast of Sarajevo. Fifteen people were on board.

Italy's defence ministry named the four dead. Sergeant Simone Ruggia and Sergeant Claudio Marchesi served in the Army Aviation Command. Lieutenant Franco Adriano Zecchillo and Sergeant Laura Procacci served in the Italian Red Cross Volunteer Military Corps. Eleven people were injured. Two were transferred to a hospital in Tuzla and the rest are being treated in Brcko, and EUFOR said all of the injured are in stable condition and none has life threatening injuries.

Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said his thoughts go first to the families of the fallen, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed condolences. EUFOR confirmed that no civilians were injured and that no civilian infrastructure, property or vehicles were damaged. Video shared on social media appears to show a Chinook spinning before it came down. The footage is unverified.

Neither the ministry nor EUFOR has identified a cause. Investigations are under way to establish the circumstances of the accident, and EUFOR said it will conduct a thorough investigation. The crash is one of the most serious incidents involving international peacekeeping forces in Bosnia in recent years. Operation Althea has operated in the country since 2004, supporting the peace settlement that ended the Bosnian war in 1995.