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MIA searches to continue despite Vietnam crash, U.S. says


An M-17 helicopter similar to the one that crashed in Vietnam on Saturday

HONOLULU, Hawaii -- A fatal helicopter crash in Vietnam won't stop efforts to find the remains of nearly 2,000 Americans missing since the war there, U.S. military representatives said Sunday.

The crash in central Vietnam killed 16 people, including seven members of a U.S. military search team seeking the remains of American MIAs. Nine Vietnamese also died in the crash. The expedition was doing advance work for a joint U.S.-Vietnamese effort to recover the remains of U.S. servicemen. (See map locating crash.)

The remains of those on board have been taken to a military hospital in Hanoi, where forensic pathologists will work to identify them, Kelly said. U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson was at the hospital Sunday.

"Joint Task Force Full Accounting has a very important mission of recovering the remains of our U.S. soldiers who are missing in the Vietnam War," said Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command. "Until we have the fullest possible accounting of these soldiers, we will continue."

The Russian-made M-17 helicopter had been chartered from the Vietnamese military. It crashed in Quang Binh province at 7 p.m. (8 a.m. EDT) Saturday. There were no survivors.

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CNN's Eileen O'Connor reports on the helicopter crash in Vietnam

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The identities of those killed had not been released Sunday. Military officials were still contacting family members of those who died in the crash, Kelly said.

Witnesses said the helicopter tilted from side to side and moved abnormally up and down just before the crash. The Vietnamese government and U.S. officials will investigate the cause of the crash, Kelly said.

The team had planned to perform excavations at six sites next month, said Lt. Col. Franklin Childress, a task force spokesman. It has not been decided whether that effort would be delayed, he said.

The task force is headquartered at Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii, but it's not clear if the members killed were from that base. Officials said those aboard the helicopter were preparing for a recovery operation when it crashed in central Vietnam, about 250 miles south of Hanoi.

The United States has been renting helicopters from the Vietnamese military for the excavation teams since 1992, and this is the first time one has crashed, said Alan Liotta, acting director the POW-MIA office.

An MIA recovery team has been diverted from Laos to Vietnam to aid with the effort, Liotta said. They will secure the crash site and search for personal effects to aid in the identification of remains.

The dead were among the best experts in MIA recovery the United States had, he said.

Since 1973, when American forces were withdrawn from the war effort, the remains of 603 Americans have been accounted for, Liotta said. More than 500 sets of remains have been recovered by the task force, which was set up in 1992.


A Vietnamese security police officer guards the wreckage of a Russian-made helicopter that crashed Saturday in Vietnam

In a statement Saturday, President Bush called the crash a "terrible" loss.

"The families of these service personnel lost in today's tragic accident know better than most the contribution their loved ones made in bringing closure to scores of families across America," Bush said.

The National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen also mourned the deaths.

"We extend our sincere condolences to the families of these service members," the group said in a statement. "Please find comfort in the fact that your loved one will always be remembered for their commitment to finding our loved ones."

The task force was created in response to presidential, congressional and public interest, as well as increased opportunities for case resolution and increased willingness by the governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to share information about missing Americans. It has detachments in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

When the joint task force discovers remains, it sends them to Hawaii for forensic examination and, if possible, identification. The remains of 1,982 U.S. military members are missing in Southeast Asia.