A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook in Syria.
A U.S. special operations helicopter crashed in northeastern Syria on June 11, injuring 22 troops, U.S. Central Command says.
Ten of the injured were taken to higher care facilities outside the CENTCOM area. No fatalities were reported. The crash is under investigation, the command says.
U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said June 13 that the incident involved special operations forces, likely making the aircraft a Boeing MH-47 Chinook based on the number of personnel on board.
“We have the world’s greatest special operations aviators that, quite frankly, no one can do what they do,” he says. “They fly at a level that no one else in the world can do, and they do high risk all the time. And sometimes things go wrong and that happens.”
The incident comes almost seven weeks after McConville ordered a worldwide stand-down of Army aviation due to a series of crashes. The order came after three crashes inside the U.S. killed 14 soldiers over about three months.
McConville said he ordered the stand-down, the first since 2007, to take “a pause” and review training, standardization and safety practices. Some of the recent crashes came during high-risk maneuvers, and the Army is reviewing its procedures and making changes to its aviation school to address them.
“What we want to do is make sure we keep Army aviation as safe as we can,” he says.
