2009 Táchira helicopter crash
Bolivarian Army of Venezuela Mil Mi-17V-5 · Undetermined
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 17 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 17
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Mil Mi-17V-5
- Aircraft type
- Mil MI-17
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- EBV-08114
- Operator
- Bolivarian Army of Venezuela
- Onboard fatalities
- 17
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 2009 Táchira helicopter crash was the crash of a Venezuelan Army Mil Mi-17 helicopter on 3 May 2009 in which all 17 occupants were killed.
Crash
The helicopter crashed at around midday local time (16.30 UTC) near El Alto de Rubio in the north-western state of Táchira in Venezuela. All seventeen people aboard the aircraft were killed. The dead included one Brigadier-General, two army pilots, thirteen other army personnel and one civilian. Venezuelan authorities initially reported eighteen fatalities but they later reduced the number to seventeen. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who was a retired army Lieutenant-Colonel, announced the incident in his weekly television broadcast and said "I pay tribute to these soldiers of the homeland, especially Gen Faneite, who was my cadet".
The crash occurred just days after Colombian President Álvaro Uribe asked for Venezuelan assistance in eliminating FARC guerillas on the Venezuelan side of the border. It is unknown if the crash is linked to intensified Venezuelan military operations against the guerillas. The United States Department of State's annual assessment of terrorism had also recently criticised Venezuela for failing to police the border and stated that Colombian rebels and paramilitaries "regularly crossed into Venezuelan territory to rest and regroup as well as to extort protection money".
Text from the Wikipedia article “2009 Táchira helicopter crash” (revision 1360058688, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2009 Táchira helicopter crash
- Revision
- 1360058688 · 2026-06-18 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7862037
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2009 Táchira helicopter crash" (page 22669669, revision 1360058688)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.