Two US pilots die in Iraq helicopter collision
Tue Dec 27, 2005 3:04 PM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. military pilots were killed when their AH-64
Apache helicopter crashed in west Baghdad on Monday night after a midair
collision with another Apache, U.S. defense officials said on Tuesday.
"There was no hostile fire involved," the military said in a statement.
The twin-engine Apache, which carries a crew of two, is the U.S. Army's
primary attack helicopter.
The second of the two helicopters involved in the collision landed at a base
in Taji, north of Baghdad, said defense officials at the Pentagon, who asked
not to be named. The officials were unable to say if weather was a factor in
the nighttime crash.
The incident is under investigation, the military said.
Dozens of U.S.-led forces have been killed in helicopter crashes since the
invasion of Iraq in March 2003, some in accidents and some after being fired
on by insurgents with shoulder-fired missiles or small arms.
Faced with dangerous roads and vast tracts of desert, the military uses
helicopters as its main means of transport to move troops and supplies
between bases dotted around the country.
In some of the worst incidents, two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters collided
under fire in Mosul in November 2003, killing 17 soldiers, a week after
another Black Hawk was shot down killing six.
A Black Hawk was shot down near Falluja in January 2004, killing all nine on
board.
In January this year, a U.S. transport helicopter crashed close to the
Jordanian border in Anbar province, western Iraq, killing 30 Marines and one
sailor.