Third Thai helicopter crash kills 3

BANGKOK – Three military men were killed and a fourth injured on Sunday in the third Thai army helicopter crash in just eight days, a force spokesman said.

The Bell 212 chopper – part of the rescue mission following another helicopter crash on Wednesday – went down in Phetchaburi province, southwest of the capital Bangkok, bringing the death toll from the three incidents to 17.

“There were two pilots and two army technicians on board. One was injured and three were killed,” Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told AFP, adding that the cause was not yet clear.

Nine people were killed when a Black Hawk crashed on Wednesday as it flew to the site of an earlier crash on July 16, in which five died.