Ugandan helicopter wrecks found

NAIROBI: Eight Ugandan servicemen walked away from their helicopter after it crashed in Kenya en route to war-torn Somalia while two soldiers were confirmed dead in another crash, officials said yesterday.
One helicopter was found on Monday, with all seven servicemen on board rescued.
“We have rescued eight survivors,” said Simon Gitau, a senior warden with the Kenya Wildlife Service, which is involved in the rescue operation. “All of them were in the helicopter that crashed but did not catch fire.” The eight survivors found yesterday had trekked for five miles (eight kilometers) through dense forests in search of help.
“They are in good condition after walking away from the crash site,” Gitau said. “All of them have been airlifted to safety,” he said, adding: “We are now using sniffer dogs to help trace more survivors, if any, in the forest.” The aircraft came down in thickly forested mountainous terrain dominated by snowcapped Mount Kenya, Africa's second-highest peak at 5,199 meters (17,057 feet). Wild animals including elephants, leopards and rhinos prowl the forests, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of the capital Nairobi.
Wreckage of the two helicopters were found early yesterday morning, with two dead bodies sighted in one that was still on fire.
“The helicopter is still burning, but we do not know if those were the only two soldiers inside or if there are others. We are yet to confirm that,” Gitau added.
Kenyan Chief of Defense Forces, General Julius Karangi told reporters that one helicopter “had been found burnt completely, and the other one hanging somewhere on the cliff.”
It had earlier been reported that both aircraft had been burnt.
Uganda said that at least 14 servicemen were thought to have been aboard the two ill-fated helicopters.
The helicopters were flying to Somalia to support African Union troops battling Shebab insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda who have vowed to topple the country's Western-backed government.
An Mi-17 transport helicopter that had taken off from Uganda on Sunday as part of the same mission landed without problems in the eastern Kenyan town of Garissa near the Somali border for a scheduled refueling stop.
Uganda provides around a third of the nearly 17,000-strong AU force in Somalia, and Kampala had said last week that it would send its first combat and transport helicopters to the Horn of Africa nation.