All 10 U.S. servicemen aboard a military helicopter that crashed two days ago in the southern Philippines are believed to be dead, an American general said Sunday.
“We have determined that there is no chance to find survivors,” said Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, head of a U.S. military contingent involved in a training exercise with Philippine troops.
He said the rescue effort had shifted to a recovery mission at the crash site, in the Bohol Sea off Negros island.
Officials had held out hope Saturday because the crew members all were trained in water survival.
The MH-47E Chinook went down before dawn Friday after ferrying U.S. commandos and supplies from the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga to nearby Basilan island, where Abu Sayyaf rebels have been holding an American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse for nearly nine months.
The bodies of three people who had been aboard the copter were recovered Friday from the Mindanao Sea.
