Seven people, mostly foreign tourists, killed in helicopter crash in Kenya

A helicopter taking tourists on a safari has crashed in a remote part of northern Kenya, killing all seven people on board, including an Ecuadorian official and an American journalist.

The helicopter crashed at 9:13am local time (06:13 GMT) on Wednesday while flying from the Loisaba Conservancy to the Ewaso Nyiro area in Samburu County, according to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, which said in a statement that an investigation was under way.

Helicopter crashes have happened with increasing regularity in Kenya, which has a vibrant tourism industry that depends on domestic carriers to ferry visitors to distant places like Mount Ololokwe.

Six passengers and the pilot were on board the helicopter, officials said. David Nkoroi, the police commander for Samburu, told reporters that all seven people had died but did not reveal their identities.

Later on Wednesday, Ecuador’s Transport Minister Roberto Luque said the country’s intelligence chief Michele Sensi-Contugi and his wife, Stephany Hollihan, were among those killed in the crash.

“Today Michele and Stephany left us too soon. Thinking of their family, especially their children and parents,” Luque wrote on X.

Sensi-Contugi, 42, is a former businessman appointed as head of Ecuador’s National Intelligence Center in 2024. He was a close associate of right-wing President Daniel Noboa, whose country is mired in a security crisis.

US broadcaster NBCUniversal also said its journalist Jose Alberto Suarez – president and general manager of Telemundo 31, Telemundo 49, and Telemundo Fort Myers–Naples – was among those killed.