The government of Ghana says that military helicopter has crashed and killed all eight people aboard including the country’s defense and environmental ministers

Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed – and seven other people died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, the state-owned Ghana News Agency reported.

The helicopter had taken off from Accra, the capital, en route to a mining conference when it went “off the radar,” the armed forces said.