Ghana's defence and environment ministers were killed in a helicopter crash Wednesday, the presidency said, hours after the armed forces reported a chopper carrying three crew and five passengers dropped off the radar.

Television station Joy News broadcast cell phone footage from the crash scene showing smouldering wreckage in a heavily forested area earlier in the day, before it was revealed that ministers Edward Omane Boamah and Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were among the dead.

Boamah became President John Mahama's defence minister shortly after Mahama's swearing-in in January.

Muhammed, 50, was serving as the minister of environment, science and technology.

Everyone onboard was killed in the accident, authorities said, while Ghanaian media reported that the helicopter was on its way to

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