A helicopter belonging to Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco crashed in the Kingdom's Ras Tanura, killing 14 people, the Saudi state news agency reported on Sunday.
The cause of the helicopter crash is yet to be determined, and an investigation is ongoing. Ras Tanura is home to the largest refinery in the West Asian region, and it is operated by Saudi Aramco.
According to a report by the Saudi Press Agency, all the people killed in the crash, which happened on Sunday morning at 6am, were citizens of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi ministry of energy expressed its condolences to the families of the people killed in the crash.
“The ministry of energy extends its deepest condolences and sincere sympathies to the families of the deceased, praying that Almighty God grants them mercy and forgiveness and accepts them among the martyrs. Indeed, we belong to God, and to Him we shall return,” the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA.
Aramco had resumed crude oil loadings on Friday at its Ras Tanura terminal in the Gulf after they were halted for nearly four months. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has joined a rush to move cargoes after West Asian producers ramped up oil and gas output and exports ahead of an interim deal to halt the war between the United States and Iran.
Plane crash in France
In another harrowing incident, eleven people have died after a civilian aircraft carrying a group of skydivers crashed on Sunday in Tomblaine, near Nancy in France, as per Reuters.
{{/usCountry}}In another harrowing incident, eleven people have died after a civilian aircraft carrying a group of skydivers crashed on Sunday in Tomblaine, near Nancy in France, as per Reuters.
{{/usCountry}}The victims are believed to include five instructors, five students and the pilot, according to French outlet Le Parisien. Emergency services rushed to the scene as authorities assessed the situation.
The deceased are believed to be self-employed nurses from Nancy who were participating in their first skydiving experience, Thierry Pechey, president of the Meurthe-et-Moselle branch of the Order of Independent Nurses, told BFMTV from the crash site. "It would appear that the victims are self-employed nurses," he said.
Several relatives of the victims witnessed the crash, according to local media. They had gathered to watch the group's introductory skydiving experience. Authorities have set up a medical and psychological support unit to assist the victims' families.
The aircraft, which belonged to a skydiving club, plunged vertically "without any known cause" of the crash, Meurthe-et-Moselle Prefect Yves Séguy told Le Parisien.
He added that there was no flight path suggesting the pilot had attempted an emergency landing. The plane crashed near residential areas, but no one on the ground was injured.