US crash kills five in Honduras

The cause of Black Hawk crash in Honduras is unknown

A United States military helicopter has crashed in Honduras killing all five soldiers on board, according to local police.

The Black Hawk helicopter from the US air base at Palmerola in Honduras crashed at about 2055 local time on Wednesday (0255GMT on Thursday) while on a training exercise.

"The bodies of all the helicopter's occupants were recovered earlier this morning. All of them are US military personnel," a Honduran police spokesman told a local radio station on Thursday.

He said the helicopter crashed on a mountain near the town of Santa Cruz de Yojoa, 85 miles (140 kilometres) north of Tegucigalpa, the capital.

The cause of the accident is unknown.

"Right now, we are classifying it as a training accident," a US military spokesman said.

The control tower of La Mesa international airport in San Pedro Sula reported the helicopter's arrival at 1930 on Wednesday (0130GMT on Thursday) to participate in a night landing exercise.

After reloading fuel, it departed again and was heading back to the base when it crashed into the mountain.