U.S. Military Helicopter on Aid Mission in Nepal Is Missing

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/world/asia/us-military-helicopter-aid-mission-nepal-missing.html

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A United States Marine helicopter assigned to the relief efforts in the aftermath of the latest earthquake in Nepal was missing, military officials said Tuesday.

A Pentagon spokesman said that six Marines and two Nepalese were believed to be on board, and that the helicopter had been out of contact for several hours.

A Defense Department official said search-and-rescue teams were looking for the UH-1 Huey helicopter, which disappeared near Charikot, a village that was hit hard by a magnitude 7.3 quake on Tuesday. That earthquake was the worst aftershock since the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit Nepal last month.

The helicopter’s crew was overheard talking about fuel problems before military officials lost contact, a Defense Department official said. The air search for the helicopter was suspended at nightfall and was to resume in the morning, but Nepalese troops were continuing a ground search throughout the night, the official said.

Separately, the Navy said an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet crashed Tuesday in the Persian Gulf shortly after taking off from the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. The two people on board survived the crash and were quickly recovered.

The crash was not the result of “hostile activity,” the Navy said.