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CNN Live Saturday
2 Black Hawk Helicopters Collide Near Mosul
Aired November 15, 2003 - 16:03 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.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: We begin, once again, with very grim news from Iraq. Two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters apparently collided today and crashed in a residential area of Mosul. More American lives were lost in this, the third deadly accident involving U.S. helicopters this month.
CNN's Walter Rodgers joins us now live from Baghdad. So Walter, it sounds like it might have been a combination of -- with the collision, the pilots trying to avoid ground fire. Do we have any idea whether or not, in fact, there was hostile fire involved?
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The preliminary military reports that we're getting, and these are unofficial because the actual facts will have to wait a full military investigation which could take days or even months, but the initial indications are that two U.S. army Black Hawk helicopters were flying over Mosul at about 6:30 in the evening. It was dark at that time. We were given to believe by one military source that as the choppers were flying in tandem, one of the choppers was taking fire from the ground. It rose to avoid the ground fire coming up at it and reportedly at that point, according to a military source, that helicopter's blades slashed into another Black Hawk.
Both of those choppers went down over the western area of Mosul, the Borsa (ph) neighborhood.
We're told, again, preliminary estimates, 12 American servicemen killed in that crash. Nine others injured. There were almost certainly Iraqi fatalities on the ground and we're also given to believe that the death toll for the Americans will rise as the investigation continues and as they try to sort things out here.
It is not the kind of news that the Bush administration was looking for out of Iraq this weekend. The reason being that the Bush administration was hoping that the news from the Iraqi governing council that indeed there would be an acceleration of the handover, the transfer of power to the Iraqis from the Americans' political power would make headlines, good news in the states that the Iraqis were assuming more responsibility for themselves.
That's going to be eclipsed by this tragic helicopter crash and we should say that this is -- that we've seen now five American helicopters go down in three weeks here. It's pretty -- pretty bad news for some American families -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Walter, what else can you tell us about the Iraqi governing council's endorsements. It's almost a chicken and egg kind of thing, whose idea was it to have this provisional government in place in June. But at any rate, how is it going to work? When will a constitution be written? When will there be Democratic elections?
RODGERS: You say chicken and egg, we might say rubber stamp. Look, President Bush sent a signal to the Iraqis through Paul Bremer this week that he wanted to accelerate the transfer of power -- from political power from the United States to the Iraqis, having the Iraqis assume more control of their own -- of their own political lives here.
There are several reasons for that. One, the CIA has put out a report that said this place is going to deteriorate into chaos unless something changes here quickly. There are over 400 dead Americans now since the start of the war. Additionally, there's a presidential election coming up.
So what the Iraqi governing council has done has been announce that they are going to dissolve themselves or -- or work toward the formation of what they're calling a transitional government in the spring. The transitional government will then work towards full sovereignty in the year 2005. And at that point they assume they'll be able to rule themselves. That doesn't take into account what the insurgents have in mind, however -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: However you have look at it democracy is still a number of months down the road. Walter Rodgers for us there in Baghdad. Thank you, Walter.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 15, 2003 - 16:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: We begin, once again, with very grim news from Iraq. Two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters apparently collided today and crashed in a residential area of Mosul. More American lives were lost in this, the third deadly accident involving U.S. helicopters this month.
CNN's Walter Rodgers joins us now live from Baghdad. So Walter, it sounds like it might have been a combination of -- with the collision, the pilots trying to avoid ground fire. Do we have any idea whether or not, in fact, there was hostile fire involved?
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The preliminary military reports that we're getting, and these are unofficial because the actual facts will have to wait a full military investigation which could take days or even months, but the initial indications are that two U.S. army Black Hawk helicopters were flying over Mosul at about 6:30 in the evening. It was dark at that time. We were given to believe by one military source that as the choppers were flying in tandem, one of the choppers was taking fire from the ground. It rose to avoid the ground fire coming up at it and reportedly at that point, according to a military source, that helicopter's blades slashed into another Black Hawk.
Both of those choppers went down over the western area of Mosul, the Borsa (ph) neighborhood.
We're told, again, preliminary estimates, 12 American servicemen killed in that crash. Nine others injured. There were almost certainly Iraqi fatalities on the ground and we're also given to believe that the death toll for the Americans will rise as the investigation continues and as they try to sort things out here.
It is not the kind of news that the Bush administration was looking for out of Iraq this weekend. The reason being that the Bush administration was hoping that the news from the Iraqi governing council that indeed there would be an acceleration of the handover, the transfer of power to the Iraqis from the Americans' political power would make headlines, good news in the states that the Iraqis were assuming more responsibility for themselves.
That's going to be eclipsed by this tragic helicopter crash and we should say that this is -- that we've seen now five American helicopters go down in three weeks here. It's pretty -- pretty bad news for some American families -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Walter, what else can you tell us about the Iraqi governing council's endorsements. It's almost a chicken and egg kind of thing, whose idea was it to have this provisional government in place in June. But at any rate, how is it going to work? When will a constitution be written? When will there be Democratic elections?
RODGERS: You say chicken and egg, we might say rubber stamp. Look, President Bush sent a signal to the Iraqis through Paul Bremer this week that he wanted to accelerate the transfer of power -- from political power from the United States to the Iraqis, having the Iraqis assume more control of their own -- of their own political lives here.
There are several reasons for that. One, the CIA has put out a report that said this place is going to deteriorate into chaos unless something changes here quickly. There are over 400 dead Americans now since the start of the war. Additionally, there's a presidential election coming up.
So what the Iraqi governing council has done has been announce that they are going to dissolve themselves or -- or work toward the formation of what they're calling a transitional government in the spring. The transitional government will then work towards full sovereignty in the year 2005. And at that point they assume they'll be able to rule themselves. That doesn't take into account what the insurgents have in mind, however -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: However you have look at it democracy is still a number of months down the road. Walter Rodgers for us there in Baghdad. Thank you, Walter.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
