Italian Chinook Crashes in Bosnia, Killing Four on an EU Peacekeeping Training Flight
Two soldiers and two Red Cross volunteers died when the CH-47 went down near Brcko with 15 aboard. The cause is under investigation and the injured are reported stable.
Friday, October 30, 2026/2 min read
An Italian military helicopter serving with the European Union's peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina crashed on Thursday afternoon, killing four people and injuring 11. The aircraft, a CH-47 Chinook, came down in the Brcko District in the north of the country during what the force described as routine training.
What happened in the Bosnia helicopter crash?
Euronews reported that the crash site was at Gorice, about 180 kilometres from Sarajevo. EUFOR said four crew members were killed and 11 were injured, and that no civilians were hurt and no civilian property was damaged. In a statement, it said a number of its personnel had tragically lost their lives.
Early figures differed as the afternoon went on. A Brcko hospital spokesman said three of the 15 people on board died in the crash and a fourth died in hospital, while the district's mayor first reported three deaths and 12 injured, one of them critical. EUFOR's tally of four dead and 11 injured is the one the Italian government has since confirmed.
Who was on board?
All 15 aboard were Italian, according to Al Jazeera, citing the Italian defence ministry. The four dead were two soldiers and two volunteers from the Italian Red Cross's military volunteer corps. EUFOR said the injured are receiving treatment and are in stable condition, and the defence ministry told reporters that none is in danger, The Aviationist reported.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto expressed condolences to the families. Photographs from Bosnian media showed the helicopter on its side in a flat field, and the Aviationist said it was one of two Chinooks Italy has deployed to the mission, according to a social media post it cited.
The Aviationist identified the aircraft as an Italian Army CH-47F Chinook assigned to the Althea mission, a heavy-lift twin-rotor type. It said the image it published was a file photograph from the Italian Army and not from the crash, and that its report would be updated as details emerged.
What caused the crash?
That is not yet known. EUFOR said it is conducting a full and thorough investigation and will release more information as it is verified. Bosnia's Defence Ministry declined to comment further until more precise information is available. Early footage and photographs from the scene have circulated, but investigators have not offered an explanation, and it would be wrong to draw one from them.
What is EUFOR Althea?
EUFOR has operated in Bosnia since 2004, when it replaced a NATO peacekeeping force that had been in the country since the war ended in 1995. It has roughly 1,200 personnel and works under a United Nations Security Council mandate to support the Dayton Peace Agreement.
The immediate tasks are the investigation and the care of the injured. EUFOR has promised to release more information as it is verified.
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