Chinook debris flown to Japan

Debris recovered from a US army Chinook helicopter that crashed off Negros Oriental on Feb. 22 will be sent to Kadena air base in Okinawa, Japan for thorough examination.

This developed as a team of US safety experts vowed to leave no stone unturned in the investigation of the disaster that killed all 10 American soldiers on board, although the bodies of only three of them have so far been found.

The recovered items included a pilot’s boot, part of the fuselage, a rotor, a fuse box, a pilot’s helmet, a seat, packets of ready-to-eat meals, and a wheel from the landing gear.

Maj. Cynthia Teramae, spokeswoman for the US special operations contingent, said "the investigation may take several months."

"They will take as much time as they need to determine the cause of the accident," Teramae told reporters in Zamboanga City.

She added that the investigators "have the ability to conduct a full scope of interviews so they can go anywhere they want and interview anyone they want in the conduct of this probe."

The final report on the disaster will come from the US Army Safety Center at Fort Rucker in Alabama.

Other air safety probers came from the US air force Special Operations Command in Hurlbert Field, Florida and from the US forces stationed in Seoul, Korea.

The investigators were at Mactan Air Base in Cebu yesterday conducting interviews and reviewing flight logs.

The ill-fated special operations Chinook MH-47E chopper was flying in tandem with another Chinook when it went down in flames some 30 minutes before their scheduled arrival at Mactan while on a night flight from Basilan.

Both choppers had just completed a series of sorties between Zamboanga City and Basilan when tragedy struck.

The US Pacific Command fielded three Chinooks for a joint anti-terrorism training exercise with Philippine troops, using Basilan as center stage for the maneuvers.

The exercise, dubbed "Balikatan 02-01," involves 660 US troops, including 160 special forces members who have been deployed to Basilan to train their Philippine counterparts in hunting Abu Sayyaf terrorists holding an American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse hostage for nine months now.

Officials of both countries have clarified that the American troops will not directly participate in actual combat against the Abu Sayyaf, but would fire back if attacked.

The US State Department did not rule out foul play as a cause of the disaster in the light of reports that an explosion accompanied the crash, although it was still unclear if the blast came while the aircraft was still airborne or upon hitting the waters off Negros island.

"There was an explosion of some sort," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. "What they didn’t know as of yesterday was whether it was the result of hitting the water."

"Since investigation was still underway, we just can’t tell whether there was foul play," Clarke stressed.

She added that misperceptions were not uncommon in disasters.

US military officials initially held it unlikely that hostile fire was principal cause of the crash.

Witnesses have told authorities they saw the helicopter plunged in flames.

The Chinook went down into the shark-infested Bohol Strait off Zamboangita town in Negros Oriental.

The bodies of three of the 10 US servicemen aboard were recovered by local fishermen who immediately responded to the accident, while the remaining seven are still missing and given up for dead.

RP troops eye capture of main Sayyaf group

Philippine military officials said they now have a clearer picture of the jungles of central Basilan where the main Abu Sayyaf group has been hiding with hostages American couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap since May last year.

Marine Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio, Balikatan co-director, cited the US spy plane P-3C Orion which reportedly conducted surveillance flights over the forest-clad Sampinit Complex, the mountain redound of the Abu Sayyaf.

"Definitely, we will be more successful in tracking where they are and pinpointing their exact location," Teodosio said without elaborating.

Evading questions if the Americans now know the exact hideout of the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers, Teodosio said; "Let us just say that we are now getting a bigger and more complete picture of the entire island of Basilan as far as surveillance (is) concerned."

"From what we know, even the movement of the wild animals in the jungle, trees swaying to the breeze and cooking fires in houses are picked up at times," the general said. — With Paolo Romero