Kabul, Afghanistan – A transport helicopter crash that killed five American crew members supporting operations against insurgents Sunday appeared to be an accident, a U.S. military statement said.
The twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopter went down in a remote, mountainous area southwest of the village of Dai Chopan in southern Afghanistan.
U.S. and Afghan forces have fought frequent battles with the Taliban and their militant allies in the area for about three years, and the downed helicopter had just dropped off U.S. troops on a mission to search for rebels.
“There is no indication of enemy involvement in the crash,” a U.S. military statement said.
All five crew members on the Chinook were killed. The military did not identify them but said the crash is under investigation.
The helicopter had delivered troops Sunday morning in the Dai Chopan district of Zabol province about 190 miles southwest of Kabul, said Gulab Shah Alikheil, spokesman for the provincial governor. They were on a mission to hunt for suspected Taliban fighters hiding in the area, he said.
“This was not a very big operation,” Alikheil said Sunday by telephone from the provincial capital, Qalat. “I think they have surrounded a house where the suspected Taliban militants were hiding, and I also think they have arrested them.”
The U.S. and Afghan military reported that the Chinook helicopter crashed on its way back to base.
“The possibility of a technical problem is higher than an attack,” Alikheil added.
It was the fourth major crash of a foreign military helicopter in Afghanistan this year.
This year has been the most deadly for U.S. forces since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001.
