SEBUAH helikopter terhempas ke tanah di Seoul, dalam kecelakaan mengerikan yang menewaskan kedua pilot setelah baling-baling terpotong di sisi salah satu bangunan apartemen paling mahal di ibukota Korea Selatan tersebut.
Petugas pemadam kebakaran, Cha Yang-oh mengatakan kepada wartawan bahwa helikopter itu jatuh di distrik Gangnam, pemukiman kelas atas - yang menjadi terkenal oleh hit video musik Gangnam Style - di sebelah tenggara ibukota Korea Selatan.
Helikopter, milik LG Electronics, sedang dalam perjalanan ke sebuah bandara terdekat di mana helikopter dijadwalkan untuk menjemput pimpinan LG dan mengangkutnya ke sebuah kota di selatan Korea, seperti dilansir Mail Online.
Cha mengatakan, kapten pilot Park In-kyu, 57, tewas. Kopilot berusia 36-tahun selamat dari kecelakaan, namun kemudian meninggal di rumah sakit.
LG Electronics Inc mengatakan kedua pilot naas itu adalah karyawan perusahaan.
Saat itu Seoul itu dalam kondisi berkabut pada Sabtu pagi, tapi Cha menolak mengatakan jika kabut tebal menjadi salah satu pemicu kecelakaan.
Cha mengatakan tak seorang pun di blok apartemen yang terluka. Gedung I-Park berlantai 38 adalah salah satu blok apartemen yang paling mahal dan mewah di Seoul.
"Saya mendengar suara ledakan saat saya sedang tidur, jadi saya berlari keluar. Ledakan terdengar seperti ada perang, "kata Jeong Young-woo, 54, penghuni I-Park.
Gambar televisi menunjukkan jendela pecah di lantai atas apartemen. Helikopter itu hampir hancur kecuali bagian ekornya.
Distrik Gangnam menjadi menjadi terkenal secara global lantaran aksi musik rapper Korea Selatan, Psy melalui lagu Gangnam Style.
A HELICOPTER has plunged to the ground in Seoul in a horrific crash that killed both pilots after its propeller clipped the side of one of the city´s most expensive apartment buildings.
Fire official Cha Yang-oh told reporters that the helicopter crashed in the upmarket Gangnam district - made famous by the hit music video Gangnam Style - in the south-east of the South Korean capital.
The helicopter, belonging to LG Electronics, was on its way to a nearby landing field where it was scheduled to pick up LG employees and head to a city in the south of the country.
Cha said 57-year-old captain Park In-kyu died. A 36-year-old vice-captain survived the crash, but died later in a hospital.
LG Electronics Inc said the two pilots were company employees.
Seoul was foggy on Saturday morning but Cha declined to say if the thick fog played a role in the crash.
Cha said no one in the apartment block was hurt. The 38-storey I-Park building is one of the most expensive luxury apartment blocks in Seoul.
´I heard a blast sound while I was sleeping, so I ran out. The boom sounded like a war had started,´ said Jeong Young-woo, 54, an I-Park resident.
TV footage showed shattered windows on the upper levels of the building. The helicopter was nearly totally destroyed save for its tail section.
The fashionable district of Gangnam became globally famous due to South Korean rapper Psy´s smash hit music video Gangnam Style.