Helicopter

A NATO helicopter crashed Thursday in eastern Afghanistan but no one was hurt, the U.S.-led coalition said. The crew was recovered after the crash, which occurred in Parwan province. NATO said the cause of the incident was under investigation. The Taliban claimed its fighters shot down the aircraft, but the coalition said that initial reports indicated no militant activity in the area. Also in the east, villagers protested the deaths of civilians in a coalition airstrike earlier this week in Khost province.

The gunfire from a U.S.-backed Honduran anti-drug mission that appears to have targeted civilians by mistake wasn't the only terror that night more than a week ago, villagers say. They say heavily armed commandos then stormed into homes and manhandled residents, and they think American agents joined in. After the shooting killed four passengers on a riverboat and wounded four more, the masked commanders landed their helicopters in this community...

WASHINGTON - The fallen come home here with such dignity that every American flag on every case of remains is inspected for the tiniest smudge. The dead are treated with reverence by everyone. Including their commander in chief. For at least the second time in his presidency, Barack Obama was at Dover Air Force Base, Del., yesterday, saluting troops who died on his watch. For Obama, it was a day to deal with the nation's single deadliest day of the decadelong war in Afghanistan.

By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent After the hard work of a few individuals the 5-year-old victim of a car accident in Dorchester on Sunday will have a few new model Coast Guard helicopters to play with as he battles to recover from his injuries. At approximately 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Globe , a young boy, who was not identified by officials, was struck by a mid-sized Chrysler vehicle on Whitten Street in Dorchester. Staff from the Boston Medical Center after the initial rescue effort, informed Lieutenant Scott...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of American troops, backed by helicopters, desperately scoured rugged Afghan mountains yesterday for an elite US military team missing in the same area where a US helicopter was shot down. A purported Taliban spokesman said that militants captured one of the missing soldiers. In central Afghanistan, Taliban rebels kidnapped and killed nine Afghan tribal leaders and sent a boy to offer to exchange the bodies for those of dead militants, an official said.

A civilian helicopter crashed in bad weather Tuesday, injuring three aboard, and a Guatemalan air force helicopter sent to help went down soon afterward, killing its 10 crew and passengers, officials said. The helicopter involved in the fatal crash was on its way to a base in the northern province of Peten when it got word of the crash of a civilian helicopter about 125 miles (200 kilometers) away, Defense Minister Ulises Anzueto told reporters. The crew on the air force aircraft determined the three civilians in the crash had been evacuated to a hospital and the...

Venezuelan officials say a military helicopter carrying 10 soldiers has crashed into the sea off the South American nation's Caribbean coast. Information Minister Andres Izarra says searchers have rescued one soldier and found the body of one of the helicopter's pilots. Leopoldo Guaicara of Venezuela's emergency agency says the aircraft was carrying 10 soldiers in all, leaving eight missing. It is not immediately clear what caused the Bell 412 helicopter to go down. Izarra initially announced the crash through the Twitter social networking site Wednesday.

TRENTON, N.J. — After a firestorm of criticism, Governor Chris Christie made an about-face yesterday, reimbursing the state for his personal use of a State Police helicopter because he said the story had become a distraction from the real problems facing the state. Remaining unapologetic about his use of the helicopter to attend two of his son’s baseball games and a political dinner with GOP campaign contributors from Iowa, Christie said he has reimbursed the state about $2,100 and asked the state Republican Party to pay about $1,200 for his trip to see the donors.

Shares of Boeing Co. rose Monday after the aircraft maker said it won a $1.64 billion helicopter contract and media reports suggested that Delta Air Lines Inc. is planning to buy 100 Boeing 737 jets. THE SPARK: The helicopter contract from the UK Ministry of Defence calls for Boeing to provide 14 new Chinook helicopters and five years of related support to the Royal Air Force. The order is part of the RAF's plan to modernize its helicopter fleet and expand its Chinooks to 60. The new aircraft will be produced at Boeing's plant in Ridley Township, Pa., near...

Russia's defense ministry says one of its attack helicopters has crashed in a region northwest of Moscow, killing at least one crew member. Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the wreck of the double-seated Ka-52 Alligator helicopter was located Tuesday around 10 kilometers (six miles) west of an airfield in the town of Torzhok. Konashenkov says the navigator was killed in the accident and that the pilot is being treated for his injuries. The Ka-52 is one of the most modern aircraft in Russia's arsenal and is designed to destroy tanks, perform...

A crash involving two vehicles on Interstate 495 in Haverhill resulted in the death of a 68-year-old woman and injured others Saturday evening, according to Massachusetts State Police. The 68-year-old woman from Salisbury a passenger in the rear seat, was traveling with two others who were also from Salisbury. She was pronounced dead at Lawrence General Hospital, said State Police in a release. The crash may have been caused by drivers attempting to dodge a loose dog on the highway, State Police said.

A crash involving two vehicles on Interstate 495 in Haverhill resulted in the death of a 68-year-old woman and injuries to two others Saturday, according to State Police. The woman who died was one of three passengers, all from Salisbury. The woman was pronounced dead at Lawrence General Hospital. The crash may have been caused by drivers attempting to avoid a loose dog on the highway, State Police said. The two other passengers were also injured, one was transported by helicopter to Beth Israel Hospital.

WASHINGTON - US officials maintained Thursday that no Drug Enforcement Administration agents fired weapons during a shootout last week in the jungles of Honduras that left several people dead. The officials also offered new details about the episode, which has touched off anti-American protests in the Central American country. The officials said the DEA agents - part of a commando-style squad called FAST, or Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team, that was on a counternarcotics mission - were allowed by the rules of engagement to shoot back if fired upon to protect themselves and their Honduran...

Venezuela's defense minister says a military helicopter has crashed during a training flight, killing four servicemen. Minister Gen. Henry Rangel Silva says one of the five on board the helicopter was injured but survived. Rangel says the Russian-made MI-17 helicopter crashed during a training flight at an airport in the western town of San Felipe. He said among those killed in Friday's crash was Col. Oscar Martinez Mora, a flight instructor and commander of a helicopter battalion in the town.

A bird strike caused a deadly helicopter crash at Camp Pendleton last year that killed two Marines, according to a Marine Corps investigation. The AH-1W Cobra attack helicopter collided Sept. 19 with a red-tailed hawk that had a wing span of about 4 feet and probably weighed about 3 pounds, according to a report obtained by U-T San Diego ( http://bit.ly/KxrFT1). Both pilots onboard, Capt. Jeffrey Bland, 37, and 1st Lt. Thomas Heitmann, 27, were killed in the crash. The hawk hit the top of the helicopter and damaged the pitch change link, according to the report.

NAIROBI - The European Union, which had vowed to take a tougher stand against the scourge of Somali piracy, took the fight to the pirates' home base for the first time Tuesday, destroying several of their signature fiberglass skiffs pulled up on the beach in a notorious pirate den. The Europeans fired from combat helicopters, with forces never actually landing in Somalia, and European officials said it was likely there would be more strikes in...

A pilot and conservation worker are missing and feared dead after the helicopter they were flying to fight a fire crashed into the ocean off New Zealand's far north coast. Northland police inspector Lou Alofa said the helicopter was located Thursday morning in about seven meters (23 feet) of water and that dive teams were on their way to the scene. He said the chopper went missing Wednesday night while fighting a large scrub fire in Matai Bay near Kaitaia. Alofa said the fire broke out at about 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed Wednesday that some of its agents were aboard a U.S.-owned helicopter with Honduran police who opened fire on a small boat on a Honduran river, and a local official said two men and two pregnant women were killed. Angry inhabitants of the largely Indian Mosquito coast region burned down several government offices in the area in response to the attack and issued a statement saying they wanted DEA agents out of the area. The shooting took place Friday on the Patuca River in northeastern Honduras.

NASCAR driver Eric McClure was expected to spend a second night at a Birmingham hospital after an accident at Talladega Superspeedway. Team spokeswoman Emily Brandt says McClure will remain at UAB Medical Center on Sunday night. His wife, Miranda, posted on McClure's Facebook page that the family is "so thankful that he survived. It is nothing short of a miracle that he was not hurt more than he is. " McClure was taken to the hospital by helicopter after an accident during Saturday's Nationwide Series race.