Military Helicopter Crashes in "Israel" Killing two Pilots

Source: Alalam.ir, 10-9-2008
AL-QUDS--A military helicopter crashed at sundown Wednesday in northern "Israel" and burst into flames, killing two "Israeli" airmen, "Israel's" rescue service and the military said.
Channel 10 TV said two Cobra attack helicopters were flying in formation and touched. One helicopter went down near Kibbutz Ginegar, near the "Israeli" town of Afula in northern "Israel", killing two "Israeli" pilots, the rescue service and "Israeli" media said.
Channel 10 TV reported the two dead were the pilot and weapons officer on the stricken helicopter. The report said the helicopter was about 40 years old and is not capable of carrying passengers.
The "Israeli" military said only that a military helicopter took off and crashed later. A Channel 2 TV reporter called it a "tragic training accident.''
Motti Navon, who witnessed the crash, told "Israel" Radio that two Cobra helicopters apparently collided.
''Suddenly we saw a rotor fall off'' one of the helicopters, he said, and it crashed to the ground. ''There was a huge explosion,'' he said.
The last crash involving Cobra attack helicopters was in July 2006, during the Zionist regime's month-long war against Hizbullah resistance group in Lebanon. An air force officer was killed when two choppers collided near the border.
In "Israel's" worst military air disaster, two Sikorsky helicopters ferrying soldiers into Lebanon collided above northern "Israel" in February 1997, killing all 73 soldiers and crew on the two craft.