Helicopter that US said crashed Tuesday in Afghanistan was actually shot down

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-crash20-2009jul20,0,5911029.story

The victims were working for Western forces, but military officials rule out hostile fire as a cause. It is the second deadly crash in less than a week involving a Russian-made civilian helicopter.

By Laura King
9:07 AM PDT, July 19, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan -- Sixteen civilians working under contract to Western forces were killed today when their helicopter plunged to the ground just after takeoff from NATO's main base in southern Afghanistan, military officials said.

It was the second deadly crash in less than a week involving a Russian-made helicopter operated by a civilian contractor. It also came a day after an American F-15E jet fighter crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing the two-member crew.

Six Ukrainian contractors were killed when their helicopter went down Tuesday in Helmand province, adjacent to Kandahar province. The Moldovan contractor operating that craft, supported by Moldovan civil aviation authorities, said the Mi-26 helicopter was shot down by insurgents.

But military officials said the cause of that crash had not been established, and an investigation was continuing.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Its doubtful that that helo had ASE gear and without it, they are dead meat

[timeforpeace]

2. I hope they don't start mis-reporting actual combat losses to make the situation look less deadly.

Seem to recall the Soviets trying that propaganda tactic to keep the folks back home from knowing how badly it was going in Afghanistan.

[Curtland1015]

3. To be fair in this case, I don't think we can call anyone out until they close their investigation.

There's still a fair likelihood that they'll declare it "shot down" when all is said and done. I'm not saying I'd be SHOCKED if they did try to spin it as something other than what happened, but I would still wait to see what they say in their "final report" of the incident.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Reads like the Moldovan civil aviation authorities have closed their investigation

[Curtland1015]

5. Perhaps? But either way it's not like we'd just take another countries "word" for it.

We still have to close our investigation.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. If it was shot down, the evidence is unmistakeable

A decent set of photos of the wreckage would make that clear