All 16 Bodies Recovered in Vietnam Copter Crash as Cause Is Investigated

Rescuers on Sunday recovered the bodies of seven Americans and nine Vietnamese who died in a helicopter crash while searching for the remains of U.S. soldiers missing in action from the Vietnam War.

Witnesses described the helicopter weaving in the air before it plowed into a mountainside in central Vietnam on Saturday.

“I heard the helicopter flying very low. The engine made a big noise, and then we heard a big explosion. It was very foggy, so we couldn’t see very much,” said Nguyen Van Minh, 45.

Those killed were the advance team for a 95-member Hawaii-based group that was scheduled to begin work at six MIA recovery sites in Vietnam in early May, said Army Lt. Col. Franklin Childress, spokesman for the MIA task force.

The bodies were carried down on stretchers from the mountain in Bo Trach district in Quang Binh province, about 250 miles south of Hanoi.

The identities of the victims were not released pending notification of their families.

However, one of the victims was Lt. Col. Marty Martin of Hopkins, S.C., his parents said. Martin was a 17-year Army veteran and was a battalion commander stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y.

The victims’ bodies were driven in ambulances to Hanoi, and the Americans were to be repatriated to Hawaii later this week.

Among those believed to be on board were the commanding officer of the MIA team in Hanoi, as well as the deputy commander and the incoming head of the Hanoi team.

Officials were investigating the cause of the accident. A local official said the team had called earlier to say they were canceling a stop in Dong Hoi, the capital of Quang Binh province, because of bad weather.

The helicopter--a chartered Vietnamese military aircraft--was on its way to the town of Hue instead when it hit the mountain.

Childress said no decision had been made whether the MIA mission would go on. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the program of accounting for MIAs and recovering their remains will continue.

“We’ve been flying in this type of helicopter for a number of years, and this is the first accident,” Childress said in Hawaii. “Every mission is a dangerous mission. It’s a very difficult area to operate in.”