The chopper might not have crashed but if it was hit by enemy fire became unreliable for transport out.
I wonder what type of choppers they were. With a strike force of 40 they probably were Chinooks with one or more blackhawks present.
I don't think the Blackhawks alone could handle 40 occupants.
There is also some question of exactly how many there were. Everything I've seen lately indicated only two choppers and with one going down, there was no way 40 troops plus prisoners would fit in a single blackhawk.
Perhaps there was a third chopper flown in from standby to make up for the lost one.
From what I JUST read, a Blackhawk can carry 11 troops plus crew while the Chinook can handle 33 troops plus crew.
The Blackhawk is the standard Special Forces chopper but it would have required 5 of them to handle the landing force plus an unknown number of prisoners or prisoner bodies.
Since ti was most likely Chinooks, ti would explain what the ground observers reported as being extremely loud.
However it went, we killed the monster at long, long last.