7名美国人在直升机坠毁事件中丧生，其中包括亿万富翁煤炭大亨。

A billionaire West Virginia coal tycoon was among seven Americans killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of the Bahamas on Thursday evening, according to local officials and reports.

据当地政府及新闻报道，周四晚间，一架直升机在巴哈马群岛海岸坠毁，造成7名美国人死亡，其中包括西维吉尼亚州的一位亿万富翁煤炭大亨。

Chris Cline, 61, a former coal miner who turned his Foresight Energy company into a billion-dollar operation in 2015, was killed in the crash at about 5 p.m. local time, the Palm Beach Post reported.

据《棕榈滩邮报》报道，现年61岁的克里斯·克莱恩(Chris Cline)于当地时间下午5点左右在事故中丧生，他曾是一名煤矿工人，2015年将其远见能源公司转变为一家价值10亿美元的公司。

Cline was also a noted philanthropist in his native West Virginia. The state’s governor, Jim Justice, mourned Cline in a statement on Thursday evening.

克莱恩在他的家乡西弗吉尼亚州也是一位著名的慈善家。该州州长吉姆贾斯蒂斯(Jim Justice)在周四晚间的一份声明中哀悼了克莱恩。

“Today we lost a WV superstar and I lost a very close friend,” Justice wrote on Twitter. “Our families go back to the beginning of the Cline empire – Pioneer Fuel. Chris Cline built an empire and on every occasion was always there to give. What a wonderful, loving, and giving man.”

“今天西弗吉尼亚失去了一个超级明星，我失去了一个非常亲密的朋友，”贾斯蒂斯在Twitter上写道“我们的家族可以追溯到克莱恩帝国初期——燃料的先驱。克里斯·克莱恩建立了一个帝国，在任何场合都乐于奉献。他是一个多么奇妙、充满爱心、乐于奉献的人啊!”

Bahamian officials told The Post the helicopter went down off the coast of Big Cay, killing seven people. The helicopter was en route to Fort Lauderdale, the official said.

巴哈马官员接受邮报采访时表示，这架直升机在大礁海岸坠毁，造成7人死亡，直升机当时正在前往劳德代尔堡的途中。

It was not immediately clear who else was on board, and the cause of the crash is under investigation.

目前还不清楚机上还有谁，事故原因正在调查中。