LONDON (AP) -- A British air force helicopter crashed late Wednesday near an army base in northern England, and twelve people were taken to hospitals, officials said.
Some were very seriously injured and other were "walking wounded," Royal Air Force spokesman Michael Mulford said. He said everyone on board was accounted for.
A total of twelve people were taken to various nearby hospitals by Royal Air Force Sea King helicopters and ambulance after the helicopter crashed in a wooded area near the Catterick Garrison in North East Yorkshire, about 240 miles (385 kilometers) north of London, Mulford told British Broadcasting Corp. television.
The helicopter was helping the army as part of a maneuver training exercise at Catterick, the site of the army's Infantry Training Center, Mulford said.
"We train there with the army and have done for many many years," he said.
Air Force helicopters were scrambled from nearby bases and arrived at the scene within ten minutes of the time the helicopter crashed in a densely wooded area just before 9 p.m. (2000GMT), he said.
A board of inquiry would begin investigating the cause of the accident as soon as possible, Mulford said. The military was contacting the families of those army and air force personnel hurt in the crash, he added.
"The board of inquiry will start work ... through the night or certainly tomorrow, and they will take as long as it takes to work their way through and determine what happened here," he said
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