|
2 isle soldiers die
in Afghan crash
Bad weather is cited
in a helicopter wreck
that kills 16 on board
Two Schofield Barracks soldiers were among the 16 people killed yesterday when a U.S. Army helicopter crashed in southeastern Afghanistan in the worst military crash in that country since the war against the Taliban began three years ago.
U.S. military officials said the CH-47 Chinook was returning to the U.S. base at Bagram from a mission in the militant-plagued south yesterday when it went down near Ghazni city, 80 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul.
"Indications are it was bad weather and that there were no survivors," said a U.S. spokeswoman, Lt. Cindy Moore. An Afghan official said there were no signs the craft was shot down.
Military officials said 13 of 16 people killed were American military personnel, and three were U.S. government contractors. Two other U.S. service members were unaccounted for, Moore said. The nationalities of the three contractors were not immediately available.
Lt. Col. Gerald O'Hara, an Army spokesman in Afghanistan, said by e-mail last night that he could not identify the dead soldiers until the next of kin had been notified.
Meanwhile, Maj. Chuck Anthony, Hawaii National Guard spokesman, also confirmed reports that a member of Hawaii's 29th Brigade Combat Team, which arrived in Iraq Feb. 27, was killed in Iraq on Tuesday.
Anthony said the soldier was not from Hawaii, but was assigned to the Hawaii unit from Washington. He said the Pentagon would release his name and hometown.
Sixty-seven other soldiers, sailors, Marines and civilians with ties to Hawaii have been killed in Iraq since the war started on March 23, 2003.
With yesterday's crash, 15 soldiers from the 25th Division have been killed in Afghanistan since Schofield Barracks' 3rd Brigade Combat Team and support units were sent there in March 2004.
Moore said the transport helicopter was returning from a "routine mission" when controllers lost radio contact. A second Chinook made it safely back to the sprawling base north of Kabul.
Abdul Rahman Sarjang, chief of police in Ghazni, said the helicopter crashed about 2:30 p.m. near a brick factory three miles outside the city and burst into flames. U.S. troops rushed to cordon off the area, he said.
Sarjang said he saw nine bodies. "They were all wearing American uniforms, and they were all dead," he told the Associated Press by cell phone from the crash site.
Sarjang said that the weather was cloudy with strong winds and that witnesses reported one of the helicopter's two rotors looked damaged before it hit the ground. He said he saw no sign of enemy fire, and militants issued no immediate claim of responsibility.
The previous worst incident in Afghanistan was an accidental explosion at an arms dump in Ghazni province that killed eight American soldiers in January 2004.
Last November, six Americans -- three civilian crew members and three U.S. soldiers -- died when their plane crashed in the Hindu Kush mountains.
About 17,000 U.S. soldiers are in Afghanistan battling a Taliban-led insurgency and training a new Afghan army.
Capt. Kathy Turner, Schofield Barracks spokeswoman, said last night that 70 percent of the soldiers who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan last year have returned home. Most of the 25th Division soldiers who remain in Afghanistan are expected to be back at Wahiawa by the end of the month.
She also said that Schofield Barracks soldiers who fly and service Chinooks have already returned to their home station at Wheeler.
Soldiers of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 193rd Aviation deployed to Afghanistan on May 5 and worked as mechanics in Kandahar servicing helicopters similar to the one that crashed yesterday.
www.25idl.army.mil
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