13 of 16 killed in Afghan crash were U.S. troops
3 contractors also died; 2 military personnel missing
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thirteen of the 16 people confirmed killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Wednesday were U.S. service members, the American military said Thursday.
Bad weather was the suspected cause, the military said.
The other three confirmed dead were civilians employed by U.S. government contractors. Two more U.S. military personnel are missing out of the 18 people listed on the flight manifest.
The names of the dead have been withheld pending notification of relatives.
The CH-47 Chinook crashed near Ghazni, 80 miles (128 kilometers) southwest of Kabul. It was returning to Bagram Air Base near the capital.
"Recovery work at the crash site will resume upon the arrival of a mortuary affairs team," U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore told The Associated Press.
The team was traveling to Ghazni by road, she told the AP, because bad weather was still hampering flight operations.
Ghazni's police chief, Abdul Rahman Sarjang, told the AP his men and U.S. troops were guarding the crash site on Thursday. The crash occurred in flat desert, Afghan officials said, according to the AP.
The crash was the deadliest for the military in Afghanistan since fighting there began, AP reported. A number of U.S. and coalition troops have died in helicopter crashes since the war began in October 2001.
One U.S. airman died of injuries he received when an Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopter accidentally crashed during a medical evacuation mission 105 miles (170 kilometers) east of Shindand, Afghanistan, on October 21, 2004.One U.S. soldier was killed when a helicopter carrying 15 soldiers and Marines developed mechanical problems and crashed in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, on August 12, 2004.Five U.S. airmen were killed in the accidental crash of a MH-53M Pave Low special operations helicopter east of Bagram Air Base on November 23, 2003.Six Air Force rescue team members died when an Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopter crashed while on the way to help two injured Afghan children on March 23, 2003.Four soldiers with the U.S. Army's elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment died when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Bagram Air Base on January 30, 2003.Seven German soldiers died when a German CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter accidentally crashed near Kabul, Afghanistan, on December 21, 2002.Seven U.S. soldiers were killed when two U.S. MH-47 Chinook helicopters came under heavy fire on March 4, 2002, during Operation Anaconda, the largest coalition offensive of the war.Two Marines were killed when a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed while on a resupply mission in Afghanistan on January 20, 2002.Two U.S. Army Rangers died when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Pakistan on October 19, 2001.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
