Spanish troops fly out to replace Afghanistan helicopter victims

WAR.WIRE

Spanish troops fly out to replace Afghanistan helicopter victims
MADRID (AFP) Aug 22, 2005
A contingent of Spanish soldiers left for Afghanistan on Monday to replace 17 troops who were killed when their helicopter went down in the west of the country last week, the defence ministry said, adding that the crash was still being treated as an accident.

A total of 22 troops flew out of the Torrejon de Ardoz base near Madrid and will replace both the 17 killed in the aircraft that crashed and the five who were injured when a second helicopter made a crash landing nearby.

The ministry also said that investigators were still leaning towards an accident as the cause of the disaster. The most likely hypothesis was that the helicopter, which was on maneouvres, was hit by a powerful gust of wind as it was flying at very low altitude, it said.

There had been unconfirmed reports that the helicopter, which crashed near the city of Herat, had been shot down.

The second aircraft was reported to have made a crash landing after its crew saw the first one go down.

Defence Minister Jose Bono is due to report on the crash before members of the Spanish parliament on Wednesday.