Schofield crash
victims retrieved

Six Americans died when their
plane went down in Afghanistan

The bodies of six Americans, including three Schofield Barracks soldiers killed in a plane crash Saturday, have been recovered from a snow-covered mountain in Afghanistan.

"We regret to report that all six individuals on board the aircraft -- the three U.S. civilian crew members and three U.S. soldiers -- were killed in the crash," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Mark MacCann told the Associated Press last night.

He said their identities would be released later by the Pentagon and Florida-based Presidential Airways, which had contracted the CASA 212 transport plane to the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, commander of the 25th Infantry Division, said: "The indications we have is that it got into a valley and tried to gain altitude quickly.

"The pilot apparently recognized that he was not going to be able to gain altitude quickly enough and tried to make a very dramatic turn, didn't make it and crashed into a very narrow valley. The aircraft broke into pieces on the ground."

Yesterday, rescuers found the wreckage of the missing transport plane southeast of Bamiyan in the heart of the Hindu Kush mountains, and the bodies of several Americans who were aboard when the plane was reported missing on Saturday.

The latest three deaths raise the Schofield death toll in Afghanistan to 12, out of a total of 46 military personnel and civilians with Hawaii ties who have died in Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan since hostilities began in March 2003.

Pieces of the engine and the wheels scattered on top of Baba Mountain, which rises to 16,600 feet and was covered in fresh snow.

The Spanish-developed transport plane is designed to land and take off using short, rough air strips.

It can accommodate 18 passengers or a cargo load of 4,409 pounds.

A private prayer service will be held today at Schofield Barracks main chapel for two of the 12 combat casualties from Hawaii in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Dale E. Fracker Jr., 23, of Apple Valley, Calif.; and Cpl. Jacob R. Fleischer, 25, of St. Louis, Mo., were killed in Deh Rawod a week ago today when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit.