Islamist rebels in Syria have captured four crew members after a government helicopter crashed today. A fifth serviceman was killed after the aircraft went down in a rebel-held area of north-western Syria, near Jabal al-Zawiya in Idlib province. It experienced a technical malfunction and made an emergency crash-landing, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Scroll down for video . 'Technical malfunction': People gather around a helicopter reportedly belonging to Syrian regime forces that crashed today in Jabal al-Zawiya . Syria's state news agency confirmed that a helicopter had crashed after a mechanical problem and said the authorities were looking for the crew. The SOHR stated that opposition fighters, including from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, had taken four crew members prisoner. Another airman survived the crash but was reportedly killed by his captors, and the fate of a suspected sixth airman is unknown, the Observatory said. SOHR head Rami Abdel Rahman said: ‘A regime helicopter was forced to land in the region of Jabal al-Zawiya in the north-west, which is a bastion of (Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate) Al-Nusra Front/ . ‘Four of the crew were captured and a fifth man was killed by armed men in a neighbouring village.’ Pictures provided by the Observatory showed groups of men gathering around a damaged helicopter lying on its side on a rocky hilltop. Mr Rahman said two of the servicemen were being held by Nusra Front, while the other two were captured by an unknown Islamist group. Gathered around: Islamist rebels captured four crew members when the helicopter crashed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said . An amateur video posted online showed rebels inspecting the wreckage of the helicopter, which had rolled on to its side on a rocky hill. The aircraft's blue undercarriage was partially torn and the nose badly damaged. Photographs posted by activists online showed the same crash site and at least two airmen in rebel custody. The United Nations claims the Syrian air force uses helicopters extensively to drop barrel bombs in indiscriminate attacks on residential areas. The improvised munitions are giant canisters packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and scrap metal. However, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied in a BBC interview last February that his forces used barrel bombs.
Fifth serviceman killed after aircraft went down in rebel-held area of north-western Syria, near Jabal al-Zawiya . Technical malfunction saw it make emergency crash-landing, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights . Syria's state news agency confirmed helicopter crash today and said authorities are now looking for the crew .