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Five survive as Uganda military helicopters crash in Kenya, 2 feared dead
A Uganda air force pilot, is rescued from the wreckage of a helicopter on Mount Kenya. Rescue teams were searching on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012 for 14 Ugandan soldiers and airmen whose helicopters crash-landed on Kenya’s highest peak two days ago while en route to Somalia. PHOTO/Kenya Military
Latest reports indicate that at least five Ugandan servicemen survived the crash of two army helicopters in Kenya en route to war-torn Somalia with two confirmed dead, officials said Tuesday.
Three Mi-245 combat helicopters belonging to Uganda crashed Sunday in a remote mountainous region of Kenya while flying to Somalia. One was found on Monday, with all seven servicemen on board rescued.
Wreckage of the other helicopters were found early Tuesday morning.
Kenyan Chief of Defence Forces, General Julius Karangi told reporters that one helicopter “had been found burnt completely, and the other one hanging somewhere on the cliff.”
It had earlier been reported that both aircraft had been burnt in the crash.
Fourteen servicemen in all were thought to have been aboard the two ill-fated helicopters, leaving seven people still unaccounted for.
A third helicopter on the same mission also crashed in forests in the Mount Kenya region late Sunday, but all seven Ugandan servicemen aboard were rescued on Monday after they managed to radio for help.
The three combat helicopters were flying to Somalia to support African Union troops battling Al-Shabaab insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda who have vowed to topple the country’s government.
The aircraft came down in thickly forested mountainous terrain dominated by snowcapped Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest peak at 5,199 metres (17,057 feet).
An Mi-17 transport helicopter that had taken off from Uganda on Sunday as part of the same mission landed without problems in the eastern Kenyan town of Garissa near the Somali border for a scheduled refueling stop.
Uganda provides around a third of the nearly 17,000-strong African Union force in Somalia, and Kampala had said last week that it would send its first combat and transport helicopters to the Horn of Africa nation.
The aircraft are seen as key to extending gains made against the hardline Al-Shabaab insurgents, who have fled a string of stronghold towns in recent months.
Kenya invaded southern Somalia last year to attack Al-Shabaab bases across its eastern border, before later joining the African Union force.
It has deployed its own air force — including attack helicopters and fighter jets — to bombard Al-Shabaab positions.
Copyright © 2012 AFP.