Ghana defence, environment ministers killed in helicopter crash

Ghana's defence and environment ministers were killed in a helicopter crash Wednesday, the presidency said, hours after the armed forces reported a chopper carrying three crew and five passengers dropped off the radar.

Television station Joy News broadcast cell phone footage from the crash scene showing smouldering wreckage amid a heavily forested area earlier in the day, before it was revealed that ministers Edward Omane Boamah and Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were among the dead.

Boamah became President John Mahama's defence minister earlier this year shortly after Mahama's swearing-in in January.

Muhammed was serving as the minister of environment, science and technology.

Everyone onboard was killed in the accident, authorities said, while Ghanaian media reported that the helicopter was on its way to an event on illegal mining — a major environmental issue in the west African country.

"The president and government extend our condolences and sympathies to the families of our comrades and the servicemen who died in service to the country," said Mahama's chief of staff Julius Debrah.

Mahama was "down, down emotionally", Haruna Iddrisu, Ghana's education minister, told reporters outside the presidency after news broke of the crash.

The Ghanaian Armed Forces had reported earlier Wednesday that an air force helicopter had fallen off radar after taking off from Accra just after 9:00 am local time (0900 GMT). It had been headed towards the town of Obuasi, northwest of the capital.

The statement had said that three crew and five passengers were aboard, without specifying at the time that the ministers were among them.