Military Plane Crashes in
Afghanistan, Three Dead
Wed Jun
12, 9:09 PM ET
By Denise Duclaux
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. military MC-130 special
operations aircraft crashed on takeoff in southeastern Afghanistan ( news
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sites) Wednesday, killing three of the 10 people aboard, the Pentagon ( news
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sites) said.
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"Three service members from today's (Wednesday's) MC-130 crash in
Afghanistan were killed in the accident," the U.S. Central Command said in
a statement from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
Their names are being withheld until the next of kin are identified.
"Seven of the 10 passengers have been transferred to a medical facility
at Kandahar for treatment," Central Command said. "Injuries range
from a broken leg to cuts and bruises."
The "Combat Talon" aircraft -- packed with electronic equipment
and designed for night missions -- went down at about 9:30 p.m. in Afghanistan
(1 p.m. EDT) near Bande Sardeh Dam just after taking off from a base near
Gardez.
Search and rescue teams reached the scene a short while later, added the
command, which is responsible for the U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda
guerrillas and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
It said the crash of the $45 million aircraft "does not appear to be
the result of hostile fire."
Gardez is 80 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul.
HUNT FOR AL QAEDA, TALIBAN
U.S. and other Western troops have been combing mountains in the region for
months in search of remnants of the Taliban fighters and guerrillas of fugitive
Osama bin Laden ( news
- web
sites)'s al Qaeda organization.
"There's little doubt that the aircraft had been supporting operations
in the area," said one Pentagon official, who asked not to be identified.
The powerful special operations planes, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., are
upgraded versions of the basic workhorse C-130 military cargo aircraft used by
armed forces of many countries. The big planes are 97-feet long and can carry
either troops or up to 25,000 pounds of cargo.
The Combat Talon is loaded with electronic equipment and weapons and is
designed for night operations. It crashed at night in eastern Afghanistan,
where U.S. and Western coalition forces have been pressing a hunt for al Qaeda
and Taliban fighters.
A U.S. KC-130 refueling version of the C-130 crashed into a mountain in
Pakistan on Jan. 9 while trying to land, killing all seven American Marines on
the aircraft.
That plane was on a mission supporting the U.S.-led war in rugged
Afghanistan.
The United States started bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7 to destroy the
Taliban and bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. Washington accused bin Laden
and his followers of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks on America that killed
more than 3,000 people and blamed the Taliban for harboring him.
Prior to Wednesday's crash, 37 U.S. troops had been killed in and around
Afghanistan, 18 of them in direct combat and the other 19 in accidents. One
civilian CIA ( news
- web
sites) officer was also killed in a prison uprising in northern Afghanistan.