French authorities investigating an Italian military helicopter crash near Strasbourg in which eight people died said Friday that a technical fault or human error were likely to be behind the accident.
The authorities ruled out a mid-air collision with another helicopter and said there were no power lines in the area the craft could have hit.
The HH-3F Agusta Bell helicopter was travelling from Dijon to Florennes in Belgium on Thursday to take part in a multinational training exercise when it crashed in isolated countryside and burst into flames, killing everyone on board.
An Italian airforce technical team is due to arrive at the accident site on Friday to help French authorities with the investigation.
Diego Sismondini, a member of the Italian team, said the helicopter did not have a black box but was equipped with technology that could provide them with a ''physical memory'' of events leading up to the crash.
The helicopter set off from an airbase near Brindisi in the southern region of Puglia on Thursday morning but stopped at Rimini, where it was joined by a second helicopter and one of the eight crew members, before flying on to Dijon.
Six of the victims were from Puglia, while the other two came from Veneto and Lombardy.
The families of the victims were also set to fly to the accident site on Friday.
Dates and places of funerals have yet to be arranged.
The accident was one of the worst helicopter crashes outside war zones in recent years.
In November 2007 six United States soldiers died and five others were injured when their helicopter crashed near Treviso in nothern Italy.
Five Italian airforce men died in a helicopter accident near Como in 2005.
