The same day, there was a report on MSNBC giving the EXACT location of
these heliocopters.....at the time I thought why not just get a road map
with little red arrows leading to them.
So this happens - is it normal procedure to put out precise locations of
troops now, where they will be running tests, etc. For they made these
men sitting ducks. This heliocopter it was reported exploded in the
sky.
Have you noted all these reports of downed planes - are they defective
or like Vietnam when UFOs would be reported in Georgia and Alabama - and
our pilots returning with munitions - the vietkong would infiltrate the
bases and gun them down when they landed......remember the old song
Stars Fell Over Alabama? Red Stone Arsenal land.
Should the news media report stuff like this - it is though they are
waiting then for something to happen, and it did.
OSaba
No s
No survivors found in chopper crash 10 U.S. soldiers were helping
Philippines battle extremists The U.S. Army helicopter that crashed
Friday is similar to this one, seen in a file photo.
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES
APO ISLAND, Philippines, Feb. 22 — Searchers have found no
survivors and the 10 U.S. soldiers aboard an Army helicopter that
crashed in Philippine waters are feared dead, officials said Friday.
Three bodies have been recovered. The troops were participating in
anti-terrorism exercises with Philippine peers.
• U.S.-Philippine relations
THE MH-47E Chinook helicopter appeared to be burning when
it went down, witnesses said, but U.S. and Philippine officials say it
was not hit by rebel fire.
"We have found no survivors from the mishap aircraft,"
said Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, head of the U.S. contingent. "We, of
course, hope they are alive, and we are doing everything with our
Philippine friends to find them.
Eight crew and two paramedics were on board the
helicopter. Their names were not released pending the search and
notification of relatives.
Philippine officials had earlier said at least two people
were found alive, while a television station said three were plucked out
of the sea by fishermen.
U.S. authorities in Washington originally said 12 people
were on board the helicopter, but a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in
Manila, Karen Kelley, said later the number was 10.
'EVERYTHING LOOKED NORMAL'
The cause of the crash was unknown. Philippine military
spokesman Lt. Col. Danilo Servando ruled out hostile fire.
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Col. Alexander Aleo, commander of the Philippine
military's 103rd Brigade headquarters on Basilan, said "everything
looked normal" as the choppers dropped off the last of 160 U.S. special
forces and supplies that have been arriving over the last two weeks to
help the Philippine military.
Police said there was light rain and poor visibility at
the time, but the chopper is equipped with advanced radar and other
navigation gear.
"There was no indication of anything amiss before this
thing happened," Wurster said.
Some debris and an oil slick were spotted five nautical
miles from tiny Apo island in the Bohol Sea in the southern Philippines.
Coast Guard Lt. Armand Balilo said one of the helicopter's rotors had
been found.
Officials said the turquoise water was believed to be
more than 1,400 feet deep. As U.S. Navy SEAL divers searched the site,
police combed the shore for debris.
FIRE BEFORE CRASH?
Fishing boat skippers Ricardo Zamora and Joel Lasola said
they were about seven miles away when the helicopter went down.
"At the time of the incident, they saw a big fire that
fell into the sea, and as the fire touched the water, there was an
explosion," said a police report based on their account.
Rodrigo Alanano, mayor of Dauin town on nearby Negros,
said he talked with other fishermen who were about one or two miles from
the crash site.
"They saw a helicopter in flames in the air, then it
exploded as it fell into the sea," he said. "They thought it was a
meteorite."
EXERCISES CONTINUE
Click for a slideshow on the terror threat in the southern Philippines.
Officials said the crash would not affect the joint
exercise, which involves about 660 Americans — including 160 special
forces — and targets the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group. The rebels
are holding a Kansas missionary couple and Filipino nurse hostage on
southern Basilan island.
Rigoberto Tiglao, spokesman for President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo, said she expressed sympathy to the Americans'
families.
"This just goes to show that this support of the United
States is not just any support," Tiglao said. "They're risking the lives
of their own soldiers, too."
Officials said the helicopter had finished three night
flights between Zamboanga, home to the Philippine military's Southern
Command, and nearby Basilan, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.
U.S. special forces moved into the southern Philippines
last month for joint exercises against Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, whom
Washington links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Some 6,000 Philippine troops are hunting Abu Sayyaf
guerrillas on Basilan and 160 U.S. special forces will be there until
June to train them. Another 500 U.S. support personnel will be in the
nearby city of Zamboanga and in Cebu, the main staging area for the U.S.
forces.
Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting for a separate Muslim
state in the mainly Roman Catholic country but the organization
specializes in kidnapping for ransom.
NEAR END OF TWO-HOUR FLIGHT
The ill-fated helicopter left Zamboanga with another
chopper at 12:53 a.m. local time for a two-hour flight to Mactan, an
islet near the city of Cebu where the United States has a supply base
for the Basilan mission.
Wurster said the first indication that something was
amiss came at 2:34 a.m. Seven minutes later, two crewmen from the second
helicopter jumped into the tropical waters to search, unsuccessfully,
for survivors.
A U.S. Navy P-3 and a U.S. Air Force C-130 airplane
rushed to the scene, as did Philippine aircraft and ships.
The Americans have been using extremely tight security,
with transport planes landing at night with all of their lights off. The
two helicopters used a system in which one landed — never turning off
its engines — while the other hovered above as a defensive measure.
"There was no mechanical trouble reported or any rebel
activity that might have affected their flight," Aleo said.
With its distinctive tandem rotors, the MH-47E is a
special forces version of the CH-47 heavy transport helicopter that has
been in use since 1962. The U.S. military is believed to have about 25
MH-47E choppers.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this
report.
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