Four die in North Carolina medical helicopter crash: reports
(Reuters) - A medical helicopter crashed in eastern North Carolina on Friday, killing four people, police and local media said.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol confirmed in a post on Twitter that there were deaths in a Life Flight helicopter crash in the eastern part of the state, referring further inquiries to the local sheriff's office.
A spokeswoman for the Perquimans County Sheriff's Office, which has jurisdiction over the area, said that only the sheriff himself would disclose information and that he was unavailable.
The North Carolina News and Observer newspaper reported that the helicopter crashed near the community of Belvidere, near the Virginia border as it was returning to Duke University Health System from another hospital.
The newspaper said authorities did not yet know what caused the crash, which was under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Andrew Hay)
