Copter crash kills 16 in Vietnam MIA search

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Seven U.S. military personnel who were part of a team searching for the remains of Americans killed in the Vietnam War were among 16 people killed yesterday when their helicopter crashed into a mountain.

Army Lt. Col. Franklin Childress of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting addressed media yesterday during a press conference at Camp Smith. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

It was the first fatal accident involving the recovery of American remains in Vietnam, which has been a joint effort between the two countries since 1985.

The service members killed were on a mission for Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, a Hawai'i-based military operation that attempts to identify and recover the remains of Americans killed in the war in Southeast Asia.

U.S. Pacific Command officials yesterday would not say if any of the victims were stationed in Hawai'i with Joint Task Force-Full Accounting or the Army's Central Identification Laboratory, the two agencies charged with recovering American remains. The military would not release the names of the victims until their families were notified.

Army Lt. Col. Franklin Childress, public affairs officer for Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, which is based at Camp H.M. Smith in Halawa, said a team of 50 mostly Hawai'i-based military specialists deployed to Laos last month on a similar mission were not involved in the accident.

"This is a tragic loss," Childress said. "Our hearts, prayers and deepest sympathies go out to the families of those involved in this incident, both the Americans and Vietnamese."

The sky was hazy when the helicopter carrying the team crashed near Thanh Tranh village, officials said. Villagers saw the helicopter swinging wildly in the air before it crashed into the side of a mountain, a local official said.

Authorities reaching the crash site found burned bodies. A man who was alive when they reached the site told them the plane was carrying an MIA search team, officials said. He later died.

The bodies were recovered at first daylight today and carried on stretchers down the hillside.

The American group was conducting "joint preparation work" with Vietnamese officials before 95 task force members from Hawai'i flew to Vietnam on April 28 and 29 for a 35-day recovery effort, Childress said.

"They were there to look at six sites where there may be possible remains," he said. "Investigative teams were gathering information regarding those sites ... so by the time the rest of the team gets out there, they know where they're going, what type of aircraft may have been involved."

No decision has been made on whether the mission will go on as scheduled, Childress said. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a press release that the overall mission to account for the MIAs and recover their remains will continue.

Quang Binh province, where the accident occurred, was the southernmost province of North Vietnam during the war, just north of the former demilitarized zone. It contains many military crash sites because it was heavily bombed during the war.

"Every mission is a dangerous mission," Childress said. "It's a very difficult area to operate in."

Peter Miller of Kailua, an anthropologist who leads teams of forensic investigators from the Army's Central Identification Laboratory to excavation sites in Southeast Asia, said he was familiar with the terrain where the MI-17 crashed.

"Helicopter flying in that area is a dangerous situation," he said. "Mountains, winds, rain, weather changes. The last time we were there we had to walk out because they couldn't get the helicopter in."

Childress said the MI-17 helicopter is a reliable workhorse used on other American recovery efforts and has a good safety record. The helicopter was from the Vietnamese military, and the pilot was Vietnamese.

"This is the first accident we had involving these helicopters," he said.

President George W. Bush expressed his condolences yesterday.

"(Yesterday's) loss is a terrible one for our nation. Although not lost in a hostile act, like those for whom they search, they too have lived lives of great consequence, answering a calling of service to their fellow citizens."

The task force has brought home the remains of nearly 600 American servicemen previously reported missing in action in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China since 1992, and in recent years has expanded operations to include World War II and Korean War MIA recovery cases.

The number of unaccounted American servicemen in Vietnam is 1,981.

The agency performs 10 missions each year to recover American remains from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, Childress said.

Advertiser staff writer Karen Blakeman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.