Kuwait Chopper Crash Kills 4 U.S. Troops
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
KUWAIT CITY (AP)--A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on night training crashed early Tuesday in the Kuwaiti desert, killing all four crew members, the military said.
Kuwaiti army spokesman Col. Youssef al-Mulla said the aircraft crashed in bad weather. Sandstorms and high winds were reported overnight and continued Tuesday afternoon.
The UH-60 Black Hawk crashed about 1 a.m. (2200 GMT Monday) near Camp New Jersey about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Kuwait City, an Army statement said.
The aircraft, which belonged to the Army's V Corps, was part of the force that has been massed in this Gulf emirate for a possible invasion of Iraq.
The helicopter was part of the 158th Aviation Regiment, 5th Battalion, of the 12th Aviation Brigade based in Giebelstadt, Germany. The group is attached to V Corps' 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, which is part of some 9,000 troops from the corps deployed as part of the recent U.S. buildup. It includes a headquarters unit commanded by Lt. Gen. William Wallace.
V Corps spokesman Bill Roche said from the corps headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, that it was still too early to speculate about a cause of the crash.
``A V Corps safety team is already on site, and then additional people are coming in from the U.S. Army Safety Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama,'' Roche said.
The bodies are expected to be brought back to Germany, though no plans are final, Roche said.
The helicopter was one of two V Corps helicopters participating in the exercise, the other of which returned safely.
The soldiers' identifications were withheld until their families could be notified. The crew were the only personnel on board, the Army said.
Less than a month ago an MH-60, an adapted version of the Black Hawk crashed in a training mission 11 kilometers (seven miles) east of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Four members of an elite aviation regiment were killed in the Jan. 30 crash.
Five American soldiers were killed Dec. 11 in the last crash of a Black Hawk, when an Army helicopter crashed about 40 minutes after takeoff into central Honduran mountains while on a training mission.
More than 70,000 U.S. troops are training in the Kuwaiti desert in preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq. President George W. Bush has threatened to use force to disarm Baghdad of weapons of mass destruction if it does not do so voluntarily according to U.N. resolutions. Iraq denies it has such weapons.
AP-NY-02-25-03 1251EST