Nato aircraft crashes in Afghanistan, killing four

[Tango123]

At least four people have been killed, and several others injured after a Nato aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan, officials say.
The helicopter came down close to Qalat city, capital of Zabul province.
A Taliban spokesman said the aircraft had been shot down, the AP news agency reported. But Nato officials say the cause of the crash is unknown.
Afghan and Nato troops have been involved in a major anti-Taliban offensive in the country's south.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi told the Associated Press that militants had shot down the helicopter near the village of Haiz, 6km (4 miles) from Qalat, at about midnight (1800 GMT on Thursday).
But Mohammad Jan Rasool Yar, spokesman for the governor of Zabul, told AFP news agency that the helicopter "crashed last night due to technical problems."
Last month, a helicopter carrying Turkish soldiers crash landed in Wardak.
And last July, a civilian helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 16 civilians and injuring five.

[charlieDontSurf]

It is stated that it was a CV-22 Osprey.

[21stCen]

ISAF: 4 killed in U.S. aircraft crash in Afghanistan
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 9, 2010 -- Updated 0655 GMT (1455 HKT)

(CNN) -- A U.S. aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing three U.S. service members and one civilian employee, a statement from NATO-led forces said Friday.
The cause of the crash of the Air Force CV-22 Osprey was not known, said the International Security Assistance Force statement. Several other service members were injured in the crash late Thursday night.
The CV-22, which conducts long-range infiltration and resupply operations for the U.S. military, went down seven miles west of the city of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province.
Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban (http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban) in the region, said Taliban fighters shot down the aircraft. Another spokesman, Qari Yoseph, also claimed responsibility and said that 30 Americans had been killed.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/09/afghanistan.chopper.down/t1larg.osprey.afp.gi.jpg



CBS Reports:

U.S. Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Kills 4

Air Force Confirms 3 American Troop Deaths, 1 Civilian, "Numerous" Others Injured; Taliban Claims Shoot-Down



http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2010/04/09/image6378088g.jpg Two U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft take off from Camp Liberty Command Pad, Iraq, March 19, 2009. A modfied version, the Air Force CV-22 Osprey, crashed in southeast Afghanistan on April 8, 2010, killing three U.S. troops. (US ARMY)



(CBS/AP) Updated at 2:29 a.m. Eastern.

A U.S. Air Force helicopter crashed late Thursday in Afghanistan's southeast, killing at least four people and wounding "numerous" others, the military said.

A spokesman for the Taliban said its fighters had shot it down, but an Afghan official said it appeared to have crashed due to mechanical failure.

The U.S. military released a statement saying an American CV-22 Osprey had crashed in southern Afghanistan late Thursday night, killing three U.S. troops, a civilian employee of unconfirmed nationality, and injuring "numerous other servicemembers."

Air Force officials said the cause of the crash was still being investigated.

Complete Coverage: Afghanistan (http://www.cbsnews.com/afghanistan)

The CV-22 Osprey uses tilt-rotor design allows it to take off as a helicopter but fly more like a propeller airplane once airborne, making it faster than most other military helicopters. According to the Air Force, the craft generally "conducts long range infiltration and resupply for U.S. Forces."

A NATO spokesman said only that the helicopter went down overnight in the southeastern province of Zabul, and that no other details were known about the incident, which was under investigation.

A Zabul government spokesman, Mohhamed Jahn Rasuliyar, first said the helicopter appeared to have been shot down, but changed that later to say the cause appeared to have been technical failure.

The U.S. military said casualties had been transported to a nearby military base for treatment. The military's statement indicated that all U.S. personnel had been accounted for.

The helicopter crash came just two days after the Taliban posted video (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/07/world/main6372945.shtml) of a man identified as Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier captured in Afghanistan last June. It shows him pleading to be returned home and saying the war in Afghanistan is not worth the human cost.

NATO commanders in Afghanistan said Thursday the release of the video showing Bergdahl only inspires further efforts to find the man (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/08/world/main6375051.shtml).

Rasuliyar said the crash site was about 7 miles from the provincial capital of Qalat, further away than originally reported. He said there were reports of four deaths among those aboard the chopper, the type of which he did not know.

Qari Yusuf Ahmedi, a spokesman for the Taliban insurgency that is active in the area, said militants had shot down the aircraft around midnight. The report could not be independently confirmed and the insurgents have a history of false and exaggerated claims designed to promote their cause of driving foreign forces from the country.

Choppers are used extensively by both NATO and the Afghan government forces to transport and supply troops spread out across a mountainous country with few roads. Losses have been relatively light, despite insurgent fire and difficult conditions and most crashes have been accidents caused by maintenance problems or factors such as dust.

Lacking shoulder-fired missiles and other anti-aircraft weapons, the Taliban rely mainly on machine guns and rocket propelled grenades to target helicopters at their most vulnerable during landings and takeoffs.

One of the heaviest single-day losses of life for allied forces occurred on June 28, 2005, when 16 U.S. troops died aboard a Special Forces MH-47 Chinook helicopter that was shot down by insurgents.

[AW139 Engineer]

Just in CV-22 Osprey Crash in Afganistan 4 Killed

[21stCen]

DATE:17/04/10
SOURCE:Flight International
CV-22 crash not caused by mechanical failure
By Stephen Trimble ([email protected])


The BellBoeing CV-22 (http://www.flightglobal.com/landingpage/v-22.html) crash in Afghanistan on 8 April was not caused by a mechanical failure, according to a source familiar with preliminary findings of the US military investigation.

The fatal crash (http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/04/09/340468/four-killed-as-usaf-cv-22-crashes-in-afghanistan.html), which killed four and injured others, occurred after the pilot lost situational awareness while landing in a wadi around 1am under brown-out conditions, the source says.

The incident killed the pilot, a flight engineer, an army Ranger and an unidentified civilian.

Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), which owns the CV-22 fleet, was not immediately available to comment.

US military officials have previously stated the cause of the CV-22 crash in Afghanistan was still under investigation. Military spokesmen, however, have ruled out enemy fire as a potential cause.

The 8 August crash is the first fatal accident involving a V-22 Osprey (http://www.flightglobal.com/landingpage/v-22%20osprey.html) tiltrotor since December 2000, and is the fifth fatal crash in the programme's chequered history.

In 2000, two fatal crashes within eight months caused by a combination of design flaws and mechanical failures forced military leaders to put the programme on hold for two years while contractors re-designed systems and the airframe to improve safety.

After declaring the MV-22 fleet operational in 2007, the US Marine Corps has deployed its version of the Osprey in Iraq and Afghanistan without suffering a fatal crash.

USMC officials have praised the MV-22's performance, although the service has acknowledged concerns about unexpectedly high costs to operate and maintain the unique tiltrotor fleet.

AFSOC, meanwhile, had deployed six CV-22s delivered so far to Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan before sustaining the crash.

The brown-out scenario during landing is recognized as a major safety concern for all rotorcraft operating in areas with loose sand. A recent study by the Office of the Secretary of Defense has concluded that 80% of the US millitary's 320 rotorcraft crashes during the last decade has been caused by degraded visual awareness.