Air force grounds Huey helicopters

Manila: The Philippine air force grounded its Vietnam War-era Huey helicopters yesterday after one crashed on a busy street while landing in a central city after combat training, killing nine people, officials said.

The UH-1H plummeted out of control while landing and crashed on a street outside an air base in Lapu-Lapu city on the central island of Mactan on Saturday afternoon, pinning a motorcycle taxi and hitting another near a public market, air force officials said.

All seven people riding the motorcycle taxi with a sidecar were killed while a driver and a commuter were wounded in the other. The crash killed one of two veteran pilots and one of two crewmen of the helicopter. It had been involved in advanced combat training in a nearby mountainous area, the officials said.

Most of those who died on the ground were commuters on their way home, and included a fresh college graduate looking forward to starting her first job. The air force said it would shoulder the cost of their burial and extend other help to their families.

TV footage showed the wreckage of the helicopter lying in the middle of a street as ambulances, their sirens wailing, arrived. Nearby, a man covered with newspapers a pile of bodies near a flattened motorcycle as throngs of residents watched.

Brigadier General Arthur Mancenido, commander of the 205th Helicopter Wing in Mactan, said 41 Hueys nationwide - the air force's work horses - were indefinitely grounded pending an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.

Officials refused to speculate on the cause of the crash but an air force officer said the pilots suddenly encountered engine trouble at an altitude of about 122 metres.