Military

DATE=02/24/2002

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-286810

TITLE=PHILIPPINES U-S CRASH (L ONLY)

BYLINE=KATE POUND DAWSON

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

INTRO: A U-S Air Force general says all 10 of the men aboard a helicopter that crashed in sea in the Philippines are thought to be dead. V-O-A's Kate Pound Dawson reports from our Asia News Center that searchers are trying to recover the men's bodies.

TEXT: The commander of the U-S forces training in the southern Philippines says there is no hope that any of the men survived Friday's crash. At a news conference in Zamboanga in the southern Philippines Sunday, Brigadier General Donald Wurster said the emphasis now is on recovering the bodies of the 10 men.

Philippine Major Noel Detoyato says Philippine and United States troops are hunting for the wreckage. The helicopter went down in the ocean and is thought to lie about 125 meters below the surface.

/// DETOYATO ACT ///

We have already deployed some of our Navy Seals. The Filipino Navy Seals are in the area, they are helping with the search.

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The U-S Army helicopter was being used to ferry troops and equipment for the anti-terrorism exercise the American forces are holding with Philippine troops in the southern Philippines.

The M-H-47-E Chinook helicopter crashed early Friday in the ocean as it was flying from Zamboanga to Cebu. U-S aircraft used in the exercised are based at a Philippine military airfield on Cebu.

Major Detoyato says the accident will not alter the plans for the exercise.

/// DETOYATO ACT 2 ///

The exercise will go on as scheduled. The participants expressed their sorrow and grief over that, but the exercise must go on.

/// END ACT ///

Major Detoyato says that investigators from the Philippines and the United States have not determined the cause of the crash, but they have ruled out hostile action.

The exercise, which involves about 660 American troops, is taking place in the home ground of the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group and other Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines. The Philippine military has tried unsuccessfully for a decade to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden.

While the recovery efforts for the wreckage continue, more than one-thousand residents of Zamboanga held a rally to support the joint exercise. Participants, who included many Muslim residents, said prayers in honor of the Americans who died. (Signed)

NEB/HK/KPD/PT