Taipei, Feb. 6 (CNA) A UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter with six people on board went missing near the outlying island of Lanyu off eastern Taiwan late Monday during a medical mission, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said.

A search is still ongoing for the aircraft, which lost contact with the control tower and disappeared from radar screen three minutes after taking off at 11:48 p.m., the ministry said.

The helicopter, belonging to the National Airborne Service Corps, had been dispatched from Taitung County to Lanyu to pick up a patient and was heading back to Taitung when the accident occurred, according to the MOI.

Besides the patient, there were two pilots, one engineer, one flight nurse and one family member of the patient on board, it added.

(By Claudia Liu and Y.F. Low)
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