Afghan helicopter crash kills 38 troops

[Windsor Loft]

Very sad :(

BBC News - Afghan helicopter crash kills 31 US troops (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14430735)

[Never in Balance]

Just read this
Helicopter crash kills 31 U.S. soldiers: President Hamid Karzai | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/06/us-afghanistan-violence-idUSTRE7750UW20110806)

(Reuters) - A NATO helicopter crashed in central Afghanistan overnight killing 31 U.S. soldiers and 7 Afghan troops, the Afghan president said on Saturday, a devastating death toll and easily the worst single incident for foreign troops in 10 years of war.

A brief statement from the presidential palace said the helicopter had crashed in central Maidan Wardak province, just to the west of the capital, Kabul, and identified the Americans as special forces troops.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai "shared his deep sorrow and sadness" with U.S. counterpart Barack Obama and the families of the U.S. and Afghan victims, the statement said.

The Taliban claimed to have shot down the troop-carrying Chinook helicopter during a firefight and killed 38 soldiers. The Islamist group also said in a statement that eight insurgents had been killed in torrid fighting.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed a helicopter had crashed but gave no further details.

Very sad

R.I.P to all those who lost their lives

NiB.

[eivissa]

Oh boy!!!

My sincere condolences to the ones involved.

RIP and may this terrible war end soon.

[Aubrey.]

Worst incident since the start of the war, very sad indeed. Condolences to all the families and friends involved.

[industry insider]

They were all brave men. They have my deepest respect. The agony and dispair for their families will be heartbreaking. I hope we do not forget them but we need to end this war, such a waste of life.

[rotorboy]

God I dont miss that place.

So Sad.

Sayad Abad, that doesnt surprise me, as We took rocket fire in the FOB LZ .

I hope all my downrange friends are safe.

RB

[Dan Reno]

Deadliest aviation incidents of Afghan war The most fatal air accidents involving planes and helicopters since 2001 in US-led NATO campaign against the Taliban.

Last Modified: 06 Aug 2011 11:56

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2011/8/6/201186103426946580_20.jpgThe fatal crash late on Friday in the Wardak province was the deadliest yet in Afghanistan [AFP]2011
August 6: A US Chinook helicopter crashes (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/08/20118662233672861.html) in an anti-Taliban operation, killing at least 31 members of the US special forces and seven Afghan troops. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the crash.
2010
June 9: A Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk CSAR helicopter is shot down in Helmand province, killing five US airmen.
September 21: A US Army UH-60 Blackhawk crashes (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/201092132921739794.html) in Zabul province, killing nine soldiers on board.
2009
January 15: An Afghan army Mi-17 crashes (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/01/2009115154321308498.html) in the Adraskan District of Herat province, killing all 13 on board, including General Fazaludin Sayar, the regional commander in charge of the western part of Afghanistan. The government declares the crash is due to inclement weather, but the Taliban claim to have shot the helicopter down.
October 26: US MH-47G Chinook crashes in Badghis province, reportedly due to low visibility caused by "thick dust stirred up" during takeoff at night, killing seven US servicemen and three US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents. Fourteen Afghan, 11 US servicemen and one US DEA agent are injured in the crash.
2007
February 18: US MH-47 Chinook from 2-160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment carrying 22 US servicemen crashes in Zabul province, killing eight and injuring 14.
May 30: US CH-47 Chinook is shot down in the upper Sangin valley, killing five US soldiers, one British and one Canadian. Until July 25, 2010, officially the incident is attributed to small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
2006
May 5: US CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashes in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, killing all 10 US soldiers on board.
September 2: A British Nimrod MR2 aircraft crashes near Kandahar, killing 14 crew members.
2005
April 6: US CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashes in a sandstorm near Ghazni, killing all 15 US soldiers and three civilian contractors.
June 28: US CH-47 Chinook helicopter is shot down in Kunar province by Taliban commander Qari Ismail, killing all 16 US special forces servicemen on board. The US military says it was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade while on a mission to rescue four SEAL members pinned down by Taliban gunmen.
August 16: Seventeen Spanish soldiers are killed when a Cougar AS532 helicopter crashes near Herat. A second Spanish helicopter makes an emergency landing, injuring five soldiers. The crash is reported as an accident, although witnesses say the aircraft took fire from a nearby village.
September 25: Five US soldiers are killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashes in Zabul province while returning from an operation. Though initially reported as an accident, the crash is later confirmed to have been caused by hostile fire.
2003
January 8: US helicopter crashes in Kunar province, killing five Americans and two Afghans.
March 23: HH-60 Pave Hawk crashes in Afghanistan, killing six on board.
November 23: MH-53 Pave Low helicopter crashes shortly after leaving Bagram Air Base, killing four US airmen and one soldier.
2002
January 9: KC-130 Hercules tanker crashes into a Pakistani mountain, killing seven Americans on board.
March 4: During Operation Anaconda, two CH-47 Chinook helicopters are hit by rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire. Two are killed in the first helicopter while dropping off a SEAL team. The second Chinook arrives later to rescue the crew and is subsequently shot down, killing four more.
December 21: CH-53G crashes in Kabul, killing seven German soldiers.

[Furia]

Real sad. :(

Rest in peace brave warriors.
God bless you.



Just a question for the Chinook rated crewmen here. Is the 38 combat troops and crew numbers ok for this aircraft in August in that theathre?
I do not pretend to speculate anything since I am not rated on this aircarft and I have no access to the performance charts, but 38 souls onboard plus all the combat equipment on that hot climate seems a really impressive figure for me although as I said, I am not rated on that type.

Very bad news indeed. :sad:

[mdwatkins]

A report just out by Stratfor has a lot to say about what might have been the impetus for a mission to begin with; from the story:

"The helicopter, which was shot down and left 30 U.S. troops dead in Afghanistan, was a trap set by a Taliban commander, an unnamed Afghan official said Aug. 8, AFP reported. According to the official, Taliban commander Qari Tahir told U.S. forces there was a Taliban meeting at the scene. Four Pakistani nationals helped Tahir, the official said, adding that the Taliban knew the route the helicopter took to the scene. The Taliban took position on either side of the valley, shot rockets and other weapons and brought the helicopter down with multiple shots, the official said."

While it is still too early to know exactly when or how this supposed conversation took place or even with whom, it is a very damning statement to say the least.

[Dan Reno]

Pentagon to reconsider landing Chinooks in battle zones

(http://www.jdnews.com/articles/landing-93886-pentagon-afghanistan.html#slComments)August 09, 2011 7:36 AM

Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan S. Landay ("")
McClatchy Newspapers
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two Pentagon officials told McClatchy Newspapers on Monday that an investigation into the helicopter crash that killed 30 American troops would probe whether it's a mistake to send the large, lumbering Chinook helicopter into a Taliban firefight, where it's a target for insurgents.
As the remains of the 30 troops killed in the military's deadliest incident of the Afghan war were being flown back to the United States, U.S. commanders confirmed that the servicemen were flying to the aid of American troops embroiled in a firefight when an insurgent shot down their helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan offered the first detailed account of the tragedy since the pre-dawn crash in the Tangi Valley, a Taliban-infested area of Wardak province, about 60 miles southwest of Kabul, the capital.
"The helicopter was reportedly fired on by an insurgent rocket-propelled grenade while transporting the U.S. service members and commandos to the scene of an ongoing engagement," said a statement released by the International Security Assistance Force.
The Pentagon announced that the return of the servicemen's remains, in flag-draped coffins, to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware possibly as early as Tuesday won't be open to the news media, although family members will be allowed to attend. The ceremony will be closed to the public because there were "no identifiable remains," said Marine Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.
Separately, two Defense Department (http://www.defense.gov/) officials told McClatchy that a military investigation into the crash would ask whether dropping a Chinook into the middle of a battle is too dangerous now. Before the incident, the Taliban rarely had shot down a Chinook, bolstering commanders' confidence that the military could use the aircraft, which can carry more people than the Black Hawk helicopter, under such circumstances.
But just two weeks earlier, on July 25, the Taliban used a rocket-propelled grenade to shoot down a Chinook in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, injuring two U.S. service members. That Chinook was struck in the bottom and was forced to make a hard landing, defense officials said.
On Saturday, officials said, the grenade struck the middle of the helicopter, essentially splitting it in midair, killing everyone on board.
Area residents told McClatchy by phone that the ground forces and the Taliban were in the midst of a firefight less than a mile from the crash site.
President Barack Obama (http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/barackobama) said that the incident, while tragic, wouldn't deter American forces from the fight in Afghanistan, now in its 10th year. U.S. forces have begun to withdraw 33,000 "surge" troops from the country, a drawdown that's expected to be completed in September 2012.
"We will press on and we will succeed," Obama said. "Our troops will continue the hard work of transitioning to a stronger Afghan government and ensuring that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists."
Gen. John Allen, the commander of the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan, said: "We will continue to relentlessly pressure the enemy and we will continue to develop the Afghan National Security Forces so that on their strong, broad shoulders they can defeat this insurgency and bring lasting and enduring peace to this historic land and this great people."
According to the coalition statement, Saturday's incident began when U.S. ground troops became engulfed in a battle with Taliban forces armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47s. The troops were flying to the aid of other U.S. service members who'd gone into the Tangi Valley in search of an unidentified Taliban leader who oversaw "insurgent operations" in the remote area, the ISAF statement said.
"After commencing the search, the initial security force on the ground observed several insurgents, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 assault rifles, moving through the area," the statement said. "The security force and the insurgents exchanged small arms fire, resulting in several enemies killed."
The soldiers asked for backup, and 33 people — Navy SEALs, airmen and Afghan special forces — climbed into a Chinook and headed to battle, led by five crewmen.
When a Chinook lands, it descends slowly to the ground, and on Saturday it did so into a remote area where there was no surrounding base to offer protection. Even under the best of circumstances, military officials say, the landing is most vulnerable part of the flight. In Afghanistan, amid fierce fighting, it's the best chance the Taliban have of killing dozens of troops at one time.
Those killed aboard the twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook included "five aircrew and 25 personnel from the U.S. Special Operations Command," said the statement, which withheld the identities of the victims and their units.
Many of the dead reportedly were from the same Navy SEAL contingent from which was drawn the unit that killed Osama bin Laden in the al-Qaida leader's hideout in Pakistan in May.
Also killed were an Afghan interpreter and seven Afghan commandos.
After the crash, the unit on the ground "broke contact" with the insurgents, moved to the crash site, secured it and searched for survivors, the ISAF said.
The investigation to determine the "exact cause" of the crash was ongoing, the statement said. It was the deadliest incident the U.S. military had suffered in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
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