ANKARA, Turkey — Rescue workers found the wreckage of a downed helicopter along with five bodies today on a snow-covered mountain in southern Turkey, but a sixth passenger appeared to be missing.
Authorities had been searching for the crash site since Wednesday, when one of the passengers phoned an emergency hot line from his cell phone and begged for rescue.
The caller, a Turkish journalist, was among the bodies found frozen inside the wreckage, rescue worker Abidin Karatas told private CNN-Turk television by telephone from the scene.
It was not immediately clear which of the six passengers was missing. Among the passengers had been Muhsin Yazicioglu, leader of a small political party.
The aircraft went down in bad weather Wednesday after leaving an election rally in Kahramanmaras province.
At least 2,000 soldiers, villagers and other rescue workers were involved in the search, which was hampered by snowfall and fog.
The journalist’s anguished emergency call was broadcast nationwide Thursday. Ismail Gunes, a cameraman for Turkish news agency IHA, said he was wedged in the wreckage with a badly broken foot and was freezing. He said some of the other passengers appeared to be dead, and that his cell phone battery was running out.
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