9 NATO troops killed in Afghan helicopter crash

[Allhallowsday]

9 NATO troops killed in Afghan helicopter crash 
KABUL, Afghanistan – A NATO helicopter crashed Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, killing nine international troops in a region where forces are ramping up pressure on Taliban insurgents. It was the deadliest chopper crash for the coalition in four years.

A "large number" of Americans were among those who died, according to a senior military official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because not all relatives had been notified. He said it remained unclear whether troops of other nationalities were among the fatalities.

The cause was not immediately clear. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the helicopter, but NATO said there were no reports of hostile fire... 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100921/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Equipment failures are a common thing in desert areas...in the new Iraq war, (and the old one) AH-64 and AH-1 (Apache and Cobra respectively) had to be constantly washed out due to the silt and sand they picked up as the flew their missions.

My cousin worked on a maintenance crew in Desert Storm (Army) and he said that they had to hose the engines and the air intakes out for an hour straight for each 5 hours of flight (if I'm remembering the ratio correctly; it could be the other way around.)

Equipment failure is just as real a chance as combat-related death, given the wear and tear the stuff goes thru every day.