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Subscribe to RSSSix United States Marines were killed when their helicopter went down in Southern Afghanistan. An investigation is under way, but U.S. military officials say there was no evidence of enemy activity in the area. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
Updated at 3:33 a.m. ET: A helicopter crash in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan killed six U.S. Marines, the NATO military command in Kabul told NBC News early Friday.
Officials said there were no signs of enemy activity in the area at time of the crash.
The Marines have a substantial presence in Helmand province.
"We are still in the process of gathering more information on the incident," an official told Reuters.
It is the worst crash since last August when 30 soldiers, including 22 elite Navy SEAL commandos, died when their helicopter came down in eastern Afghanistan.
The Helmand helicopter crash occurred on the same day seven civilians were killed outside a crowded gate at Kandahar Air Field, a sprawling base for U.S. and NATO operations, after a suicide attacker set off a vehicle laden with explosives. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying they were targeting a NATO convoy.
On Wednesday, 13 civilians, including three Afghan policemen, were killed when a suicide attacker blew himself up in a bazaar in Helmand province. At least 22 others were wounded in the blast in Kajaki district.
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NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Sad to hear people died. Condolences to the families of these soldiers and pilots.
I got to be honest, im surprised by the number of death in choppers. You would think they would have come up with some kind of system to save lives in the event a chopper is going down. You know, a big parachute, ejection seats, protective capsules, airbags.. something.. I realize they fly low and all, but there must be some way to soften the impact or prevent it from killing people inside.
Im one of those people who believes theres an answer to every problem.
Have you looked at a helicopter, especially the huge spinning rotor on top....would you want to ride an ejection seat into that??? Unfortunately even with jet aircraft when a pilot ejects there is fair chance he will be killed, a large possiblity he will suffer several broken bones especially arms/legs from impact with the aircraft during ejection. Plus if he is injured or incapacitated the landing is brutal.
Helicopter crashes are especially horrific because the impact with the ground tosses the occupants all over or out of the aircraft, rotors are spinning and often breaking apart throwing pieces in all directions at high velocity. Fire is a constant hazard from the thin fuel cells on board. Everything is thin walled for weight.
The great news is they are safer today than a decade ago and most have strong roll cages and fire suppression equipment installed now. On commercial choppers the seating is the leading cause for survival because its anchored and offers protection upon impact. Military helicopters do not have this because of the number of men they carry they still rely on tube & net seating or no seats at all.
They do get safer every several years but gravity still sucks at times. There is an answer and hoefully we willcontinue to search for it. Americans can do anything in time. :)
I have been in helicopters that have lost engines due to electrical mal-functions and we auto-rotated down.
Safely. Once in CH-47 in West Germany in 1985.
I am not a pilot so you would have to google auto-rotate to see exactly what happens.
May the Souls of the Faithful, Departed Rest in Peace. May God give the Strength and Courage to the Families and Relatives to bear this Huge Loss. GOD BLESS THE USA.
Kevin Valentine Moraes
Mira Road (Thane)
Excellent post, Kevin, and Mara.
RIP marines
@ RAGGAHead:
Again- here, hold this PIGskin football while a Marine pulls the trigger with YOU in his sights, @$$h0le. Die w/o your ridiculous "47 virgins", idiot. Oh, and get off that computer...WE invented the internet. lol Now F*ck Off.
Lots of hate in these threads. Marines are our brave souls that put their lifes on the line. Semper Fi.
Condolences and prayers go to the victims' families and friends.
~prayers to the families of the lost-may these men forever RIP~
Morale has hit rock bottom. Things from here on in will deteriorate very quickly. There's a feeling these guys will refuse to go to Iran. Mass mutiny is in the pipeline.
The guys I work with are more than willing to handle Iran, but the Navy could level that place.
Do we need more confirmation about leaving this so called country? Whether it was accidental or purposely shot down doesn't matter! Afghanistan is a puppet state used by Iran. Most of our foreign aid money is funneled to terrorist cells who in turn buy vehicle/human/roadside bombs from Iran, and intelligence information on US military operations. We are funding the war against ourselves. .... The original reason we went into Afghanistan was that we were sure Osama Bin Laden was hiding there. Then years later we find him living peacefully, and under the protection of another Iran puppet state Pakistan. The Iranian goal is to spread chaos, confusion, death, and destruction across this entire Blue Earth. They are being very successful at doing this. So why would Iran seek the bomb, and ballistic missiles to go with it? Because one day the USA military will wake up, and realize the biggest snake in the backyard is Iran, if they haven't already. Once Iran establishes that they have nukes, and missiles the war changes drastically. This week they have pointed a gun to the heads of two countries to make more time. Holding entire countries hostage is not an easy achievement. Russia proclaimed that a war with the Iranians could spill over into a world war. Of course, that is after a Iranian diplomat spoke to them. Turkey, which never calls for peace talks about anything, asked for negotiations with Iran to be resumed. Again, that was after a Iranian diplomat spoke to them. I would suspect that these Iranian 'diplomats' informed both these countries that they were extremely close or have nuclear warheads. Also, that ballistic missile tests were underway which could reach into Europe, Russia, Turkey, China, India .... etc. .... Sidepoint; At the bottom of this article is a small piece about a suicide bomber in a vehicle who killed several civilian Afghans outside a US base. The Taliban claim a NATO convoy was the target .... no matter, so what if we missed! Chaos, confusion, death, and destruction is the goal. How would they know about a NATO convoy??? Answer, using our foreign aid money to buy information. .... In conclusion, we must stop all foreign aid to these countries, remove our military personnel as quickly as possible. I don't like waiting for Iran to make the next move. It would be like having Japan attack Pearl Harbor first. With a nuke Iran must have targets/plans for possible use. The obvious first target would be Israel, Tel Aviv to be more specific. That would be like dropping a bomb on California. However, putting a gun like this into hands of children, and they could go crazy with it. Maybe, the first missile strays off course and hits Turkey instead? Or maybe, Moscow? Those in Peking shouldn't be smiling either! Sorry, for the long dialogue, but I want our country to face the facts about Iran. If they get/have a nuke they will eventually use it!
Thats why more people should want to join the Coast Guard, probably not going to die, or get sent to the sandbox.
My Coastie brother-in-law spent a one-year deployment in Iraq in 2003; so yes, Coasties do get sent to the sandbox during times of war.
Weren't they involved in one of the recent episodes rescuing Iranian sailors? Sound like they were pretty close to the sandbox.
Please bring them back, let no more be killed. It's so sad how this war just won't end!! :(
A sad day for the Corps, real Americans, and for the families and friends of these Marine warriors. May God welcome them home and bring peace and consolation to all suffering this loss.
Rest in peace Marines, and THANK YOU for your selfless service.
Wash D.C is actually going to prosecute marines for urinating while they die in the field. This is the dysfunctional government we have to live with.
The helicopter was probably taken down by an RPG but the US is not going to tell anyone what really happened. Years ago when I was stationed in Korea a good friend of mine was killed by a North Korean infiltrator. Guess what the official US version was: He committed suicide. You will never get the real news about what is going on in Afghanistan because of US censorship.
Six more Marines to guard the streets of Heaven.
Semper Fi!
There are no streets which need guarding in heaven. It's heaven for god's sake! Wake up!
Guard Duty, even in heaven??? Marine humor there. I doubt heaven needs guarding, its pretty safe there, no communists,athiests or liberals allowed in to threaten it.
That wasn't "marine humor", that was Marine mentality on display. Your post was rather repetitive of mine, 3 and a half hours later, but then you had to get partisan with it.. Has it never occurred to you that the founding fathers of our nation were considered "liberals" and "terrorists" by the conservatives to Royalty in 1776? Washington was a deist and a FreeMason, do you think he made it to "heaven"?
Fiddlers Green perhaps and I don't mean the FOB.
The few, the proud, the Marines, RIP.
I am so proud to all that has served in our military.
liberty&freedom LuVr
Actually you should get your facts right before pointing fingers. Bush created these wars. Not Obama.
RIP brothers. May the American people that you are serving for find their backbone and vote out the government that deems your lives worth the price of profit gained.
~Proud Vet~
We already did. Bush had both of his "victories" stolen for him in Florida and Ohio, with the help of SCOTUS and finally McCain(R) lost. Our VOTE only works one out of three times, and we have to win overwhelmingly to keep the vote total rigging from being too obvious to undertake.
If I had seen this article without having heard from my husband, I would have been worried. He is a contractor that works directly with the marines and flys via marine choppers all over the Helmand and Kandahar provinces. It really doesn't matter how this accident happened, it is just the fact that we lost more american lives overseas. It saddens me to hear this report and to think that my husband (father of my young children) could have been on that flight. I am not allowed to know when he flys until after he has flown, so reports like these really scare me if I don't hear from my husband every couple of days. You people really need to think about how the deaths of our fellow americans effect the family that is left behind now. Lets think about others instead of ourselves. RIP Marines.
Lisa...I hope your husband is safe and comes home soon.
RIP and God bless their families, sincere condolences.
Six more of America's finest dead over a country we already know we will walk away from in the future and let it return to the backwards goat chasing women stoning cavemen they are. Why?
One word : Heroin.
China's an economic threat. They're mainly Buddhist. Buddhists smoke Opium. Opium comes from Poppy (90% of worlds poppy is grown in Afghanistan..) We guard the poppy fields...Thats the only thing I can gather anymore...Gain control/profit.
If you would study history you would know that the Roosevelt family made their millions importing heroin into China.
Around the time of what has been known as Boxer Rebellion.
Racist stupidity at its worst.
Oliver North made the money to buy the weapons for selling to Iran by importing cocaine to Washington DC where it was gioven to the people they say have no souls.
Ask Ollie about Colonel Jerralle of Honduran Army.
Ah, looks like they finally reverse engineered the helicopter we lost getting Bin Laden and then shared the information with their buddies on how to reroute/crash the GPS and landing systems for the choppers. Maybe???
No politics here.
RIP
Just think of the Billions owed to dependents of the U.S. Army that have died in the crashs of the defectively built (known by Army and Sikorsky) UH60A. Known in the military as (Yard Darts).
Over 400+ of our men/women killed in their first Two Years of flying. 1982-1984
Another 400+ killed after junk fix of problem. Pin Filters !!!
We lost 5 men in Honduras crash in 2002.
Stabilator always max down. Cause of crash EMI. Aircraft built without shielded wiring. To Save Weight. Navy and all other services had correct wiring. Many more faults with aircraft and military and Sikorsky knew it. They are the ones that caused the deaths.
This crash was a CH-53. The problem is L-3 Vertec has hired people who fail drug test for cocaine and then put them to work at $120,000+ a year.
On the recommendation of Bill Toth who supervised drug test and new Jay Cobb had failed.
L-3 Vertec who maintains helicopters for DOD.
On the recommendation from Bill Toth to L-3 who knew Jay Cobb had failed the test.
Enough is enought at this point. Those people (meaning the terrorists) are going to keep blowing themselves up trying to hurt people. While we have wont the War they will continue to attack our troops until we get them out of there. Enough of them have been killed because the lowlifes over there. Time to come home.
RIP Marines
Semper Fi