Rescuers try to reach downed helicopter
Aircraft carried about 16 troops over Afghanistan, officials say
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; Posted: 5:58 p.m. EDT (21:58 GMT)
The MH-47 is the special operations version of the U.S. Army's Chinook transport helicopter.
The area west of Asadabad, near the Pakistan border, is known for having snow-covered peaks rising as high as 7,000 feet.
The doomed MH-47, a variant of the Army's twin-rotor Chinook transport used by special operations troops, was carrying about 16 military personnel onboard, U.S. military officials said.
Military sources tell CNN an emergency beacon went off when the aircraft went down.
The mission was to bring in reinforcements "in support of U.S. forces currently conducting counter-terrorism operations," the Coalition Press Information Center of the Combined Forces Command in Kabul said in a written statement.
More of the article here
It will be interesting to see how this affects the President's speech tonite (and the country's reaction).