Afghanistan Blackhawk Crash: Chopper Crashed In Bad Weather, Official Says

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A U.S. Army helicopter crashed in bad weather during a night flight in Afghanistan, and all four American crew members were killed, U.S. and Afghan officials said Friday.

The American military has confirmed the chopper crashed Thursday night while responding to a suicide attack on a local police checkpoint.

A U.S. official in Washington confirmed Friday that four Americans on board were killed. The military said the cause of the crash was not known, and no other details were immediately available.

The chief of the Garmsir district in southern Helmand province, Mohammad Qayum Gorbaki, said the helicopter was flying to the scene of a suicide bombing in his area when it crashed late Thursday because of bad weather. He had no further details about the crash.

Gorbaki said four Afghan police officers were killed and seven others were wounded in the suicide attack on the checkpoint.

Two U.S. defense officials in Washington said late Thursday that four American troops were aboard the helicopter, identified as an Army Black Hawk. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details were still being collected, and the families of the helicopter crew had not yet been notified.

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Associated Press writer Robert Burns contributed to this report from Washington DC.

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Comments

[KPGUNN]

02:08 AM on 04/24/2012

How many of you were there, read the reports, saw the aftermath, heard the radio chatter, stayed up all night when this happened? Bottom line, most of you commenting on this have no idea. No idea about this area it went down in, the night it happened, who these guys were, anything. So stick to what you know about. You want to come experience Taliban fire, the recruiting office can't be far away. I can't say what the crash site looked like, or what the chopper looked like, that information cannot be released, but i can say we had horrible lightning that night and all signs point to that is what brought the bird down. Those four men who went down the in the bird were good guys, they were always at the gym the same time I was, they would give us tips and we would give them tips because we did basically the same stuff. They went out that night to try to save four complete strangers, how many of you would do that?

[hbssl]

12:40 PM on 04/21/2012

I feel for the last American killed in afghanistan. The whole country is not worth one American life.

[blutopie]

07:55 AM on 04/21/2012

It's always amazing to me that we're fighting a war and our aircraft are never shot down. Even when we don't know what happened at all, we're always sure it was bad weather or a dust storm or an excessive glare on the windshield

It's always bad weather rather than 'the Taliban shot it down'

Is there always particularly bad weather over the countries we've invaded and are fighting in or does steel rain count as weather too?

The US military propaganda offices are a bunch of clowns - they think they know how to make sure the US public doesn't turn against a war like they turned against Viet Nam.

Drones and non-draft volunteer cannon fodder are perfect for these clowns - I think a civilian-sourced drafted army is perhaps the best way to keep these clowns at bay - to provide a check and balance for Bush, Obama, and the next absolute power corrupts absolutely president- guy

[BG-back]

07:07 AM on 04/21/2012

Bad weather or enemy fire (for once)?

[Ramon Moreno]

03:32 AM on 04/21/2012

Conditions were choppy.

[Dead Gangster]

01:55 AM on 04/21/2012

God bless them,condolences for their families.why don't they take parachutes

[Ramon Moreno]

03:33 AM on 04/21/2012

or jump out right before the crash

[Trustfunded1]

12:36 AM on 04/21/2012

I guess foul weather sounds better to American audiences than another Taliban shootdown.

[teabagmetos]

08:17 PM on 04/20/2012

We lost plenty of guys in peacetime operations in such flying deathtraps as the CH 46 and CH 53's .

[bhshms]

04:04 PM on 04/20/2012

Please pray for the four families devastated by this news and for the soldier they were trying to rescue. Also pray for the media that only harps on the negativity of the military because the are truly responsible for the current state of the government.

[blackhawkguy123]

06:27 PM on 04/20/2012

Trust me... These were friends and co-workers of mine. Lots of prayers.

[bhshms]

08:13 PM on 04/20/2012

Im sorry for your loss it is devastating.

[MelvinB]

03:50 PM on 04/20/2012

Im hoping they have more information than just bad weather. I know that flying in choppres can be problematic in bad weather. Used to set down in South Korea while patrolling the DMZ a lot in the summer storms we ran into. We'd simply land and wait... Couldn't see anything anyways so the mission purpose was defeated in that weather. We always thought it better to set down rather than push on and run into a mountainside... We actually had a crew fly into the North by accident. Got back over but got hit by a ZPU-4 so they had to set down with a 3 inch shorter main rotor causing oscillations. Got picked up and they airlifted the Huey back with a CH-47..

[mimsysc]

03:08 PM on 04/20/2012

Is everyone 100% on board with "weather",,,, I doubt it,,, well the taliban isnt either, you cant trust anyone to tell the truth.

[blackhawkguy123]

05:45 PM on 04/20/2012

Have you ever.... EVER been to Afghanistan??!!! The weather is ALWAYS changing. Going from 6,000 ft to 13,000 ft in a dusty environment is as crappy as it gets. The weather is always changing there, and can change in a split second. The concern should be on those that lost their lives.... My friends and co-workers.

[mimsysc]

10:48 PM on 04/22/2012

I am concerned about them, and I think there is a good chance its more of a coverup. Just my opinion.

[Ramon Moreno]

03:26 AM on 04/21/2012

The yankees suck like your comment.

[eeverettm]

01:53 PM on 04/20/2012

Halle Berry and all these blacks celebrities were boasting about "Peace with Obama". Where is it?

[blackhawkguy123]

05:47 PM on 04/20/2012

WTF does this post have to do with the crash!!?? DONT EVEN RELATE THIS WITH CELEBS!!

[Ramon Moreno]

03:27 AM on 04/21/2012

You're both on Troll Patrol. Give it a rest.

[gensully52]

03:25 AM on 04/21/2012

You must be some Right Wing Nut to try and link this to Obama. I'm appalled. You my friend are a fool.

[eeverettm]

01:52 PM on 04/20/2012

I don't see the media or Michael Moore counting down the amount of soldiers killed since Tut took office. How many is it now?

[Ramon Moreno]

03:28 AM on 04/21/2012

Not enough. Why don't you join up?

[LkeToRead]

01:35 PM on 04/20/2012

There are too many chopper deaths. What a waste and tragedy.

[Kim Moore2011]

01:02 PM on 04/20/2012

And expect many more stories like this one coming out of that country, it's a doomed mission over there with no end in sight.