Air Crash Not to Affect Joint Philippine-U.S. Military Exercises

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 22, 2002

Air Crash Not to Affect Joint Philippine-U.S. Military Exercises

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The ongoing joint Philippine-U.S. military exercises will not be affected by the crash of a U.S. Army helicopter on early Friday in the central Philippines, according to the spokesman of the U.S. embassy in Manila .

Despite the incident, the U.S. is committed to continuing the training exercises with its Philippine counterparts, the Philippine Daily Inquirer on-line news Friday quoted Karen Kelly, the spokesman of the U.S. embassy in Manila, as saying.

A MH-47E Chinook helicopter with 10 U.S. soldiers dropped in a sea not far from the southern province of Negroes Oriental before dawn Friday. It was on its way to Mactan Air Base in the central city of Cebu.

Three soldiers have been rescued with another three confirmed dead so far, and rescue teams are searching the water around the crash site for the remaining four soldiers. Both the military and security experts here said the helicopter was unlikely attacked byhostile fire before crashing.

The U.S. contingent in Basilan was using two Chinook variants for transporting military personnel and equipment. Starting on Monday, exercise participants on both sides are now on night flight training which requires all aircraft to fly in total darkness.

Around 100 U.S. special forces, in full gear, are operating on Basilan, and the other U.S. armymen, most of whom are on logisticsservices, are located at Cebu and Zamboanga city in the south.

As many as 660 U.S. troops including 160 special forces, are inthe southern Philippines carrying out a six-month training exercises expected to help Filipino troops hunting down the Abu Sayyaf bandits. The group is still holding an American couple and a Filipina nurse in Basilan.

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