Italian media have released further details regarding the EUFOR soldiers who died in a helicopter crash near the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Italian Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto announced yesterday that those who perished in the accident were Army Aviation Sergeant Simone Ruggia, Army Aviation Sergeant Claudio Marchesi, Lieutenant Franco Adriano Zecchillo of the Italian Red Cross Volunteer Military Corps, and Sergeant Laura Procacci, also of that corps.
According to the news portal Senza Colonne News, Laura Procacci hailed from Montegrosso, a locality near Andria in southern Italy. Procacci was 24 years old, a medical student, and this was her first international mission.
She took her oath of service with the Red Cross Volunteer Military Corps in March of this year; the portal reports that she was the first female non-commissioned officer from Andria to do so. Prior to this, she had volunteered with the Misericordia association in Canosa di Puglia from 2019 to 2022.
Franco Adriano Zecchillo was from Lombardy and worked as a cardiovascular perfusion technician at a hospital in Legnano, reports the portal Open. He had served as a lieutenant in the Red Cross since 1990.
The Italian Red Cross Volunteer Military Corps – the organization to which both belonged – paid tribute to them on social media.
“With the Red Cross emblem on their sleeves, they lost their lives while fulfilling their duty to serve the Italian Military Red Cross and its fundamental principles,” they stated.
Simone Ruggia and Claudio Marchesi were flight technicians with the 1st Army Aviation Regiment “Antares” based in Viterbo, according to Open. Ruggia was from Salerno, while 35-year-old Marchesi was from Orvieto.
There were 15 people on board the CH-47 Chinook helicopter that crashed on Thursday afternoon in the Gorice area near Brčko. Eleven people were injured, but none are in life-threatening condition, Klix.ba writes.
