WASHINGTON (KRT) — A U.S. Army helicopter taking part in anti-terrorist operations in the Philippines crashed in the sea Thursday with 12 Americans aboard. The Defense Department said no survivors had been found, although a search was still underway.
The crash of the Army MH-47 Chinook helicopter comes as the United States is significantly escalating its involvement in the Philippine government’s war against a homegrown terrorist group with links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization.
If the death toll remains at 12, the crash would be the U.S. military’s single biggest loss of life since President Bush declared a war on global terrorism in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Pentagon spokesmen said they had no reports that hostile fire brought down the helicopter.
The MH-47 was en route from Basilan Island in the southern Philippines to an air base at Mactan with eight crew members and four passengers when it crashed into the sea about a half-hour after takeoff, said Marine Maj. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command.
The crash occurred at about 1:30 p.m. EST, 2:30 a.m. on Friday in the Philippines, Gibson said.
The Pentagon withheld the names of those aboard pending notification of next of kin.
“The helicopter was operating in support of U.S. efforts to train and advise the armed forces of the Philippines in their efforts against global terrorism,” Gibson said.
A second MH-47 that was flying in tandem with the first remained over the crash site, while other aircraft were sent to the scene to search for survivors, according to the Hawaii-based Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military forces in East Asia and the Pacific. The two aircraft had just delivered the last of 160 U.S. special forces troops to Basilan.
The Bush administration is deploying more than 600 troops to the Philippines to assist President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s government in its long-running battle with the Abu Sayyaf group, an Islamic terrorist organization whose stronghold is in the jungle of the southern Philippine islands.
The U.S. troops are in the Philippines to help train and advise local armed forces in counter-terrorist tactics, and to hold joint exercises. Under a U.S.-Philippine agreement, they are allowed to be present in combat situations, but are not supposed to fight except in self-defense.
Abu Sayyaf is believed to have links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization, although the strength of those ties is in dispute.
Recently, the group has turned to hostage-taking as a way to raise funds. It holds two U.S. missionaries, Grace and Martin Burnham, of Wichita, Kan., as well as a Filipino nurse, Ediborah Yap.
Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research center, said the U.S. mission in the Philippines, while a worthy one, is unlikely to make a major impact on global terrorism.
Abu Sayyaf “is a relatively fringe player in the broader scheme of al-Qaeda-related organizations,” O’Hanlon said, and its operations appear to be primarily limited to the southern island of Basilan.
“They’re now in the business of taking hostages and demanding money,” he said.
The twin-engine MH-47 is the special forces version of the military’s workhorse CH-47 helicopter, which is used primarily to move ammunition and repair parts and transport troops and weapons.
The Chinook, which was designed in the 1950s, has been in service since 1962. No information was available on the chopper involved in Thursday’s crash.