[Jeff Head]

I have wondered about the helo since the start of this, whether it was on deck or in its hangar and caught up in thie explosion.

At this point, my guess is that it was not, or things would have been worse...unless of course the missile was a near miss and ballistic shrapnel and pieces of the missile impacted the helo and it exploded, causing the damge to the ship.

Guess we will have to wait and see.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I doubt the helo was aboard. A blast in the hanger would have affected it (burned, blown shrapnel from theblast, subsequent fires...) It's too little time to launch the helo from detect to impact, if the helo were already aboard.

That fact that soldiers were injured indicates the ship was supporting Israeli army ops in-country. if so, the helo would have had its IFF off (since you can track and shoot an IFF signal) and THAT would be the reason that the ship anti-air systems HAD to be off.

If they were "on" automatic, then the helo wold become a target as it returned to get more soldiers (the ones hurt/killed.) aboard the ship.