BREAKING: Saudi prince, others die in helicopter crash

A Saudi Arabia prince was killed when the helicopter he was riding in with other senior government officials crashed in the southern region of the country near the Yemen border on Sunday, November 6.

Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbariya announced the death of Prince Mansour bin Moqren, the deputy governor of Asir province. He and the other officials were reportedly taking a helicopter tour of development projects near the coast when the incident happened.


He was a son of Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who briefly was Saudi Arabia’s crown prince from January to April 2015. The cause of the crash has not yet been revealed.

The incident comes a day after Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen near its capital, Riyadh.

It also occurred a day comes after 11 princes dozens of current and former ministers were arrested in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, November 4, a night after the formation of an anti-corruption committee by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

Among those fired and/or arrested are the head of National Royal Guards, Miteb Bin Abdullah, the minister of economy and planning, Adel Fakeih, and Admiral Abdullah bin Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Sultan, the commander of the Saudi Naval Forces.


On Tuesday, October 24, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged a “moderate, open” country, breaking with ultra-conservative clerics in favour of an image catering to foreign investors and Saudi youth.

“We are returning to what we were before – a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world.

“We will not spend the next 30 years of our lives dealing with destructive ideas. We will destroy them today. We will end extremism very soon,” he said at an economic forum in Riyadh.