Six dead in US helicopter crash
Man what a black day for the US indeed!
Six dead in US helicopter crash
Pave Hawk helicopter is US special forces’s mainstay
A US Air Force helicopter has crashed in Afghanistan, killing all six people on board, the US military has said.
US Central Command said the crash was not shot down by enemy forces.
The HH-60 Pave Hawk was conducting a “medical evacuation mission”, it said.
The helicopter crashed at about 1620 GMT, about 18 miles (29 kilometres) from Ghazni, south-west of Kabul.
It said the names were being held until next-of-kin has been told, and an investigation to determine the precise cause of the crash has been launched.
US forces have been conducting a large-scale operation - Valiant Strike - over the past few days in the area, searching for remnants of the Taleban regime and their al-Qaeda allies.
The last US helicopter crash in Afghanistan was on 30 January, when an army helicopter came down near Bagram air base, killing all four crew members.
Special forces chopper
Pave Hawk is the standard special forces adaptation of the Black Hawk.
Flown by the Air Force Special Operations Command, the Pave Hawk’s primary roles are infiltration, recovery and re-supply of special forces units operating behind enemy lines, day or night.
The helicopters are fitted with all-weather radar, which enables them to operate in poor conditions.
Pave Hawks saw service during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991, recovering downed coalition pilots in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Persian Gulf.