Resort tycoon Howard ‘Butch’ Kerzner was killed along with three others Wednesday when a helicopter they were traveling in crashed into a building on the Dominican Republic’s north coast, an aviation official said. According to AFX news wire, the helicopter carrying Kerzner, chief executive officer of Kerzner International Ltd., a Bahamas-based casino and resort operator, went down at 2:15 p.m. in the popular tourist resort of Sosua, said Yolanda Manan, a spokeswoman for the Dominican airport authority.

In the Bahamas, where the company’s flagship Atlantis resort is the second-largest employer behind the government, Prime Minister Perry Christie said it was ‘a sad moment for our nation.’

Kerzner, 42, was surveying potential development sites in the Dominican Republic when the helicopter crashed on the roof of a business that grows ornamental plants.

Two officers in the Dominican armed forces, David Rosario Pimentel and Kevelier Matos, also died in the crash, said civil aviation spokesman Angel de la Rosa.

Read the press release here .
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