Thursday, August 20, 2009

Chinook crew unhurt after incident in Afghanistan


A British helicopter crew has escaped without injury after their Chinook was forced to make an emergency landing in Helmand province late last night following an engine fire.

The crew managed to evacuate the aircraft safely and were immediately extracted by another Chinook.

The helicopter was later deliberately destroyed by a coalition air strike to deny it from enemy forces.

The cause of the incident which happened yesterday, Wednesday 19 August 2009, is still under investigation, however enemy action has not been ruled out.

In the short term other UK aircraft in Regional Command (South) and those operated by our NATO partners will be able to cover the helicopter lift requirement. In the medium term the UK's Joint Helicopter Command is already planning the replacement of this airframe.

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