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CNN Live Today
Eleven Killed in Black Hawk Crash
Aired March 12, 2003 - 10:09 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention now to upstate New York, where the Army is investigating a deadly military helicopter crash. A Black Hawk chopper went down yesterday during a training mission, killing 11 of the 13 soldiers aboard.
Our Jason Carroll is following that story for us from Fort Drum -- good morning to you, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi. The weather out here certainly not helping investigators who are out at the crash site.
What they're doing is trying to recover as much of the aircraft as possible. They will also go over the flight sequence to try to determine exactly what went wrong.
Also, early this morning, there was a flag-raising ceremony here at Fort Drum. It was a very emotional moment. Some of the soldiers out there actually crying as the flag was raised to half-staff to honor those soldiers who lost their lives.
A military spokesman this morning giving us a few more details about exactly what happened during that training mission. Apparently, about at 2:00, radio contact was lost with that Black Hawk helicopter. At about 3:30, the wreckage from that chopper was spotted. This morning, that military spokesman giving some more details about specifically what type of training mission was being conducted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to build democracy at the barrel of a gun, when history suggests that it's more usually the product of long, internal development within a society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Obviously, that was not the correct sound bite there. But I can tell you that what basically is that the military operation that was taking place was a loading operation, that Black Hawk helicopter oftentimes used for transport.
Also I want to just make another sort of detail about what's been happening out here at Fort Drum. Some 1,000 troops here have been deployed overseas for a possible war with Iraq. As recently as Monday, some 250 soldiers left. So you can imagine the soldiers' families were already tense. This morning, some of the military people out here were talking about what type of impact this particular type of accident would have here on the people here at the base. They said -- quote -- "it is a sobering reminder of just how fragile life can be."
Very quickly, there were two survivors from that crash. One is in critical condition, the other in serious condition -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Jason Carroll, live for us from Fort Drum today. Thank you.
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 March 12, 2003 - 10:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention now to upstate New York, where the Army is investigating a deadly military helicopter crash. A Black Hawk chopper went down yesterday during a training mission, killing 11 of the 13 soldiers aboard.
Our Jason Carroll is following that story for us from Fort Drum -- good morning to you, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi. The weather out here certainly not helping investigators who are out at the crash site.
What they're doing is trying to recover as much of the aircraft as possible. They will also go over the flight sequence to try to determine exactly what went wrong.
Also, early this morning, there was a flag-raising ceremony here at Fort Drum. It was a very emotional moment. Some of the soldiers out there actually crying as the flag was raised to half-staff to honor those soldiers who lost their lives.
A military spokesman this morning giving us a few more details about exactly what happened during that training mission. Apparently, about at 2:00, radio contact was lost with that Black Hawk helicopter. At about 3:30, the wreckage from that chopper was spotted. This morning, that military spokesman giving some more details about specifically what type of training mission was being conducted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to build democracy at the barrel of a gun, when history suggests that it's more usually the product of long, internal development within a society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Obviously, that was not the correct sound bite there. But I can tell you that what basically is that the military operation that was taking place was a loading operation, that Black Hawk helicopter oftentimes used for transport.
Also I want to just make another sort of detail about what's been happening out here at Fort Drum. Some 1,000 troops here have been deployed overseas for a possible war with Iraq. As recently as Monday, some 250 soldiers left. So you can imagine the soldiers' families were already tense. This morning, some of the military people out here were talking about what type of impact this particular type of accident would have here on the people here at the base. They said -- quote -- "it is a sobering reminder of just how fragile life can be."
Very quickly, there were two survivors from that crash. One is in critical condition, the other in serious condition -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Jason Carroll, live for us from Fort Drum today. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
