U.S. Copter Crash Kills 16

Associated Press

April 6, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. military helicopter crashed in bad weather in southeast Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 16 people, including four American crew members in the deadliest military crash since the U.S.-led offensive began in 2001.

An Afghan police official said all the dead, including the four crew, appeared to be American. However, the U.S. military provided no details of the passengers' identity. Two more people were listed as missing.

The U.S. military suggested that severe weather brought down the CH-47 Chinook near Ghazni city, 80 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, as it returned from a mission in the militant-plagued south.

"Sixteen people have now been confirmed dead in the crash," a military statement said. Two others listed on the flight manifest, "remain unaccounted for," it said.

It said the names were being withheld until their next of kin were informed.

Military spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore told The Associated Press earlier that the helicopter was one of two Chinooks flying to the main American base at Bagram, north of Kabul, when controllers lost radio contact.

Abdul Rahman Sarjang, the chief of police in Ghazni, said the helicopter came down at about 2:30 p.m. near a brick factory three miles outside the city and burst into flames. U.S. troops rushed to cordon the area to look for any survivors. he said.

"We collected nine bodies, though the Americans told us there were 13 people in total on board," Sarjang told AP by cell phone from the crash site. "They were all wearing American uniforms and they were all dead."

Sarjang said the weather was cloudy with strong winds, but had no explanation for why the aircraft came down in a flat, desert area.

He said there was no sign that enemy fire brought it down. The discrepancy in numbers could not immediately be explained.

According to U.S. Department of Defense statistics, at least 122 American soldiers had died before Wednesday's incident in and around Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led war on terrorism, began after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Accidents have proven almost as deadly as attacks from Taliban-led insurgents, including a string of helicopter crashes and explosions caused by mines and munitions left over from the country's long wars.

The bloodiest incident was an accidental explosion at an arms dump in Ghazni province that killed eight American soldiers in January last year.

Most recently, four U.S. soldiers died when a land mine exploded under their vehicle south of Kabul on March 26.

Last November, six Americans - three civilian crew members and three U.S. soldiers - died when their plane crashed in the Hindu Kush mountains. The military's last fatal helicopter crash occurred a month earlier when a pilot was killed in the west of the country.

About 17,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan battling a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency focused on the south and east. The top U.S. commander here, Lt. Gen. David Barno, told AP the size of the U.S. force would be reviewed after Afghan parliamentary elections in September

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