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.