U.S. chopper crashes in RP, no survivors yet
U.S. chopper crashes in RP, no survivors yet
Pedro Uchi, Reuters, Dumaguete, Philippines
Three American soldiers were killed when their special forces
helicopter involved in anti-terrorist training exercises crashed
in the sea in the southern Philippines on Friday, officials said.
Seven others were listed as unaccounted for and rescuers said
hopes of finding any of them alive were fading.
The MH-47 Chinook helicopter, with eight crew and two other
soldiers on board, went down during a night flight in the Bohol
Strait some 660 km (410 miles) south of Manila, said Brig. Gen.
Donald Wurster, special forces chief of the U.S. Pacific Command.
The victims were the first casualties in what is viewed as the
second front of Washington's stepped-up war against terror. Some
660 U.S. soldiers are in the southern Philippines to help train
the local military to fight Moro guerrillas linked to Osama bin
Laden.
Philippine officials had earlier said two, perhaps three,
people had been plucked alive from the sea, but Wurster said the
other seven were still unaccounted for.
"We of course hope they are alive and we are doing everything
we can to try and find them," he told reporters in Zamboanga, the
headquarters of the Philippine military's southern command.
"The search for survivors will continue until we are convinced
there are none," he added.
"We had an aircraft there immediately, we had people in the
water where the aircraft impacted. We are starting there and we
are expanding the area of search, taking into account the
current."
But Philippine officials, some of them veterans of many search
operations in the choppy seas of the archipelago, held out little
hope.
"It's providential at this point," coast guard chief Vice-
Admiral Reuben Lista told Reuters. "At this point, it's up to
somebody up there."
"So far, coast guard vessels scouring a diameter of 12
nautical miles from the crash site have found one tire, one
wheel, one lifeboat and the nose of the helicopter."
A Reuters television and photo crew which flew over the crash
site saw a big oil spill spreading out from the scene.
Other officials said some 40 fishing boats and Philippine navy
and coast guard vessels had joined the search.
The giant, twin-rotor helicopter, one of two flying in tandem,
had just completed a series of night flying sorties, ferrying
Green Beret special forces and equipment slung under the belly to
Basilan island where Filipino soldiers are battling Abu Sayyaf
guerrillas, who have been linked to bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
After completing the deployment, the chopper took off from
Basilan to its base in the central city of Cebu. It went down
just about half an hour's flying time short of the destination,
close to the town of Dumaguete.
The other helicopter reported the crash and stayed on for
rescue operations. Its crew recovered the three dead bodies
almost immediately.
Mystery surrounded the cause of the crash of the helicopter.
Some fishermen said they heard an explosion and others said they
saw the helicopter come down in flames.
"There were no reports of hostile fire," Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff
Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters.
Philippine National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said: "It
could be human error, it could be a mechanical failure. We are
not ruling out anything."
There has been considerable opposition to the U.S. deployment
in the Philippines and shots were fired at a U.S. military
transport plane last month, although no one was hurt.
Officials said there was low-level cloud at the time of the
crash and the sea was choppy, but conditions were not unusual.
MH-47s are upgraded versions of the CH-47 Chinook troop-
carrying helicopter and are configured for night operations and
other work by elite soldiers. The crash would not alter schedules
for the exercises, the Philippine military said.
Separately, a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft made
an emergency landing at Mactan airport in the central Philippines
on Friday after one of its engines failed while it was airborne,
local television said.
The emergency occurred hours after a U.S. Army special forces
helicopter carrying 10 U.S. military personnel crashed in the
south of the country, local military officials said.
The Orion surveillance aircraft made an emergency landing at
Mactan airport after suffering an engine failure while it was in
the air, Manila's ANC television network said.
U.S. and Philippine officials could not be immediately reached
for comment on the report.