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CNN Live Today

Cause of Air Force Plane Crash Remains Unknown

Aired June 14, 2002 - 14:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Two days after a U.S. Air Force plane went down in Afghanistan, the cause of the deadly crash remains a mystery. And CNN national correspondent, Gary Tuchman, is the first to report from the crash site near Gardez. He filed this exclusive report via videophone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We come to you from the isolated Paktia Province in southeastern Afghanistan. This is a region where U.S. troops have been spending time trying to find al Qaeda holdouts. It's also the exact area where tragedy happened two nights ago.

Behind me, the MC-130 transport plane that crashed. It fits 129 people. It's a $155 million plane. Two nights ago, ten people were aboard it; seven Air Force crewmembers and two Army Special Forces crewmembers. Three of them were killed, seven people wounded.

You can see the devastation of that plane. There was a terrible fire after it landed, but it was obviously after it landed, because seven people escaped from it, and many of them only with minor injuries. But the three people who were killed, two of them are men, one a woman, the second woman killed during the war in Afghanistan. Sean Corlew, 37 years old from California, an Air Force staff sergeant, Anissa Ann Shero, 31 years old, an Air Force staff sergeant, and Peter Tycz from New York state, Tonawanda, New York to be specific, an Army sergeant. Thirty members of the U.S. military have now been killed in support of the war on terrorism.

You can still see two propellers on the plane, but you can't make out much else in this very isolated area.

We want to give you a look at where this plane took off from. It's only about five kilometers, three miles away from here. We know it wasn't hostile fire, at least that's what authorities are telling us right now. But they don't know what caused accident. This is a very parched, dry, it's almost like a moonscape here. The nearest paved road is 160 kilometers or 100 miles away. But there is a landing strip right to the left of a little hill that you see there. There is no airport and no air base, just a strip where Air Force and Navy planes have been taking off to participate in routine and special missions. This particular mission was a special mission.

U.S. Air Force investigators have come from the United States to start trying to find out what caused this terrible accident.

This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, southeastern Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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