Ecuador’s intelligence chief Michele Sensi-Contugi and his wife were among seven people killed on Wednesday when a tourist helicopter crashed in Samburu County, northern Kenya.

Sensi-Contugi, who headed Ecuador’s National Intelligence Center (CNI), was travelling with his wife, Stephany Hollihan, when the helicopter crashed while reportedly flying to Loisaba Conservancy, a wildlife reserve and luxury safari destination.

The preliminary report from Archers Post Police Station said all seven people on board six passengers and the pilot were killed in the crash.

The US State Department confirmed that five Americans were among those who died. Ecuador’s presidential office identified Sensi-Contugi and Hollihan, who was also a US citizen, as victims.

The US Embassy in Nairobi is in contact with Kenyan authorities and is providing consular assistance, according to the State Department.

Sensi-Contugi served as Ecuador’s Minister of the Interior from April to August 2024 before becoming director of the country’s National Intelligence Center, a position he held until his death.

He was a close confidant of President Daniel Noboa and was among his key financial backers during the presidential campaign. He was born in Italy in 1982 to an Italian father and an Ecuadorian mother.

Other victims included 42-year-old Miami entrepreneur Roger Duarte, founder of George Stone Crab and co-founder of My Ceviche, and José Alberto Suárez, president and general manager of Telemundo’s television stations in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers-Naples.

Luxury safari company &Beyond, which operated the excursion, said the cause of the crash had not yet been established.