Helicopter crashes nose-first into Beijing car park; no casualties

Four people on board a civilian helicopter suffered only minor injuries after the aircraft crashed in a car park in the Chinese capital of Beijing on Monday morning.

The pilot steered the Bell helicopter owned by Reignwood Star Aviation away from crowded areas before it crashed in Naidong village near the Jingcheng motorway in the northeast of the city, state-run Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Witnesses said the helicopter spun around a number of times before plummeting nose-first to the ground at about 11am, the report said.

“The helicopter lost control in mid-air,” the report quoted a witness as saying. “The plane was really loud when it lost control a few hundred metres away ... The pilot steered the helicopter and ... it landed in an empty car park.”

There were three men and one woman in the helicopter. The woman, who appeared to be a pilot, and a male passenger crawled out of the aircraft, a witness said.