Reports Say All Survived The 'Hard Landing'

ANN REALTIME REPORTING 02.08.07 08:30 EST: Just one day after a fourth US military helo went down in Iraq in less than three weeks, officials have confirmed a second civilian chopper went down last week south of Baghdad.

Reports of the incident surfaced this morning in which an unidentified civilian helicopter operating for a private security firm took heavy-caliber ground fire before going down on January 31 with an unknown number of people aboard.

This is the second civilian helicopter operated by a private US security firm to go down in Iraq since the beginning of the year. Overall, six choppers have gone down in the past three weeks -- five of which, officials confirm, succumbed to ground fire.

A US military official told Reuters, "It did not crash, it made a hard landing. They were able to get all crew and equipment out."

A New York Times report says another helicopter rescued the passengers and crew of the downed aircraft.

According to the US embassy in Iraq, the incident is under investigation.

For security reasons, the military remains closed-mouthed about the details of aircraft lost to hostile fire, but CNN reports this morning military investigators now believe choppers operating low to the ground to avoid shoulder-fired missiles are going down under small arms fire instead.

The rash of recent downings came after an insurgent militant group warned it has "new ways" to combat helicopters, and the US military acknowledges it is reviewing possible changes to its tactics.

While officials say yesterday's crash of a CH-46 Sea Knight claiming the lives of seven is under investigation, an al-Qaeda-linked Sunni group has claimed responsibility.

ANN will post more details on this developing story has they become available.

FMI: www.pentagon.mil, http://iraq.usembassy.gov