WASHINGTON — A helicopter carrying three U.S. senators made an emergency landing Thursday in the mountains of Afghanistan because of a snowstorm.
Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Joe Biden, D-Del.; and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., were aboard one of two helicopters that made emergency landings, Kerry told The Associated Press from Turkey. Staffers were on the second chopper, he said.
No one was injured, Kerry said. He said the group waited for about three hours until a convoy with U.S. troops took them to Bagram Air Base. From there, they left for Turkey.
“The weather closed in on us,” Kerry said. “It went pretty blind pretty fast, and . . . the pilot exercised his judgment that we were better off putting down there.”
The lawmakers are on a trip that includes stops in India, Turkey and Pakistan, where they observed the elections earlier this week.
