News-Info-Alerts

Re: US Helicopter with 2 US Pilots Missing in South Korea

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 22, 2002

"U.S. Military Helicopter With Two American Pilots Missing in South Korea
By Soo-Jeong Lee Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 22, 2002


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A U.S. attack helicopter with two American pilots on board disappeared during a night training flight on Thursday, the U.S. military said. South Korean police said rain and heavy fog were hindering the search.

U.S. and South Korean authorities were combing a mountainous area for the AH-64A Apache helicopter, which was declared missing at 12:25 a.m., said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Boylan.

He said the attack helicopter had left Camp Page, a U.S. base at Chuncheon, 50 miles east of Seoul, and was heading to Camp Humphreys at Pyongtaek, south of the capital. Chuncheon is 32 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.

The National Police Agency in Seoul ordered regional police stations to search for the helicopter.

"We don't know whether the helicopter crashed," a police official in Pochun, north of Seoul, said on condition of anonymity. "But we are having a lot of trouble due to rain and dense fog."

The U.S. military said it would release the names of the pilots when it determines what happened to them.

The United States and South Korea are conducting an annual military exercise called Ulchi Focus Lens, which ends Aug. 30. Boylan said the missing helicopter was not part of the exercise, which has been criticized by North Korea as an obstacle to reconciliation talks.

AH-64A Apaches are two-seat helicopters made by Boeing. They were used in the 1989 invasion of Panama, the 1991 Gulf War and peacekeeping in Bosnia. They carry Hellfire missiles, 70-mm rockets, Stinger air-to-air missiles and a 30mm machine gun.

On Aug. 1, an AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter, an upgraded version of the original Apache, went down in a rural area northeast of Seoul. The pilot and co-pilot were unhurt.

About 37,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. "