The Czech Republic’s billionaire and the founder of the PPF Group, Petr Kellner has been killed in a helicopter crash during a ski trip in Alaska on Saturday, his financial group PPF said on Monday, according to The Sun.
PPF said five people died in the crash, whose circumstances were being investigated.
Kellner and his group had been on a heli-skiing trip when the Airbus AS350 B3 helicopter that the group were flying in came down near Knik Glacier northeast of Anchorage.
„We announce with the deepest grief that, in a helicopter accident in Alaska mountains on Saturday, March 27, the founder and majority owner of the PPF group, Mr Petr Kellner, died tragically,” said the PPF Group in a statement.
Officials say the helicopter crashed under unknown circumstances about 50 miles east of Anchorage at 6:35 pm on Saturday. The National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
The 56-year-old businessman bought a major European broadcast network, Central European Media Enterprises (CEM), for $1.1bn last October. CME operates 30 TV stations in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, and is one of the largest media companies in the CEE region, according to independent.co.uk.