Posted on 04/06/2005 5:17:42 AM PDT by jmc1969
A US military CH-47 Chinook helicopter has crashed in south-eastern Afghanistan, with officials saying the bodies of at least two Americans have been recovered from the wreckage.
The US military had no official confirmation of the number of casualties from the accident in Ghazni province, US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore said.
But provincial governor Asadullah Khalid said a number of people had died in the crash in Dah Khudaidad district, 2.5km south-west of the provincial capital, Ghazni city.
"I went to the crash site," Mr Khalid said.
"We took two bodies out of the helicopter. There were more than two people in the helicopter.
"They were Americans" he said, without elaborating how he knew their nationality.
Mr Khalid said the crash was due to "bad weather".
(Excerpt) Read more at theadvertiser.news.com.au ...
Now, remember, we must not replace these helicopters, no matter how old they are, how slow or how many fatal crashes they have. Replacing them means going with the V-22 Osprey, which has had a couple of fatal crashes during testing and must therefore be canceled at all costs.
The Luddites have spoken, don't you know.
Anything old is good. Anything new is bad. QED.
How do you know thery're old...my hubby's unit has quite a few new Chinooks.
MSNBC (AP) is reporting five dead.
I hate everything.
You may want to wait to see what caused the crash before you bring up the subject of "Hangar Queens."
My hubby's unit lost one in Iraq from an RPG...lost the crew and 18 troops heading for R&R....
I remember that. The Marines lost a CH-53 a few months ago in western Iraq with about 30 souls. Haven't heard the cause. I believe the pilots were on night vision goggles. Not sure.
Yes, it was in Nov 2003...I had a prayer thread...I didn't know if my hubby was on the Chinook for hours, he was heading home for R&R...turns out he was already in Kuwait....
I remember that too.
MSNBC is reporting nine dead.
Two aircraft were returning to Kabul after a mission in southern Afghanistan. There was bad weather in the area.
Recommend "Breaking News"
I pray that they were not at troop capacity...
My guess is that the two CH-47s were of the Special Ops type. Those don't usually carry numbers much above 10 or 12, depending on the areas they are working.
How does one recommend Breaking News?
`We collected nine bodies, though the Americans told us there were 13 people in total on board,'' Sarjang told AP by mobile telephone from the crash site. ``They were all wearing American uniforms and they were all dead.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Afghan-US-Helicopter-Crash.html?
I was hoping the mod would see my post. You could ping 'em. The story is moving off of the Front Page sidebar and someone will probably post a duplicate on BN before too long.
Prayers for those lost and their families.
How do you ping a mod?
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