WASHINGTON – Leading Zimbabwean opposition politician Roy Bennett and four others, including his wife, were killed in a helicopter crash in New Mexico in the United States, local authorities said on Thursday.

Bennett, a 60-year-old former farmer, was a leader figure in the Movement for Democratic Change, and was elected to parliament in 2000.

Bennett, who had been in exile in South Africa since 2010 after having been jailed by parliament for pushing a fellow MP, was in the US to spend some days with friends at a ranch belonging to Texan businessman Charles Burnett III.

Bennett’s wife Heather, Charles Burnett III, pilot Jamie Coleman Dodd and co-pilot Paul Cobb were also killed in the crash, the New Mexico State Police said.

Cobb’s daughter and Burnett’s partner, Andra Cobb, was the only survivor.