By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO (Reuters) -A helicopter crashed into a barge on the Mississippi River on Thursday, killing two people who were on the helicopter and closing the river to traffic near Alton, Illinois, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said.
No one was on board the barge, which caught fire after the crash, spokesperson Jonathan Lindberg said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, he said.
The river, a major shipping waterway for crops and other goods, shut from mile marker 199 to mile marker 201 as officials investigated the incident and made sure no debris was in the water, Lindberg said. There was no estimate for when the river would reopen, he said.
Alton is downriver from the Mississippi’s confluence with the Illinois River, and the closure could delay barges carrying grain to the U.S. Gulf.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)
