Canadian Chinook Helicopter Downed in Afghanistan

Canada's small fleet of six CH147 helicopters is one smaller following Thursday's crash. Fortunately, there were only minor injuries to the crew and passengers.

A Canadian Chinook helicopter was forced to make a hard landing near a remote village in Kandahar province Thursday, bursting into flames and causing minor injuries to eight soldiers.

“About 2 p.m. today a Canadian Forces CH147 Chinook helicopter had a hard landing about 20 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city. There were minor injuries,” said Maj. Daryl Morrell, senior public affairs officer for Task Force Kandahar.

The Associated Press reported that Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed insurgents shot down the aircraft with a rocket. Maj. Morrell said the investigation into the incident was too early in its progress to say whether the claim was true or not.

“What we're doing right now is we're looking into causes. So this will be investigated and we'll get more details,” Maj. Morrell said.

“Right now all that we know is it was a hard landing. We want to confirm and that's what we're doing now.”

A shopkeeper in the area said he heard a loud bang, then saw smoke and the helicopter falling into a field. A witness said the helicopter was still on fire a couple of hours after it came down.

The Chinook landed near the village of Armarah.

The site of the landing was immediately secured by Afghan National Police and NATO's ISAF forces. The five crew members, including two pilots and three door gunners, as well as 15 passengers were recovered from the Chinook.

UPDATE: The Canadian military has confirmed that the helicopter was brought down by small arms fire from Taliban insurgents.

By: Shelldrake