According to local sources, seven bodies had been recovered by rescue forces at the crash site by nighttime. The Israelis on board the chopper included four Israeli army pilots and two airborne mechanics.
The Israeli occupation army released on Monday night the names of the six Israeli crew members
According to Bucharest media reports, the Romanian Defense Ministry said the helicopter, a CH-53 Sikorsky, crashed during Blue Sky 2010 – an 11-day joint Romanian-Israeli aviation exercise. The exercise began on July 18 and is set to conclude on July 29.
Earlier, Romanian Defense Ministry Spokesman Constantin Spanu said officials were scrambling to reach the crash site, located near the town of Zarnesti, some 75 miles northwest of Bucharest. The rescue mission included a medevac, as well as Israeli and Romanian ground troops, assisted by local police and medical personnel.
An Israeli Air Force mission, including medical and rabbinate teams along with IAF officials, headed to Romania to assist in the search and rescue efforts.
According to the Air Force, the missing helicopter was flying at low altitude in a two-aircraft formation as part of the exercise. At some point, while flying over the Carpathian Mountains, one of the choppers radioed that it had lost visual and radio contact with its counterpart. Mission control was unable to resume it.
According to some reports, one of the two Sikorsky helicopters that took part in the drill was forced to land at the beginning of the exercise, but it is unknown whether it was the same chopper that later crashed.
IAF Chief Major-General Ido Nehushtan spoke with his Romanian colleague Monday night and the two have agreed on a joint inquiry of the event, which at this point is presumed a crash. Nehushtan later appointed a team headed by a brigadier general to conduct the probe.
Israel Air Force chief of staff Nirmod Shefer on Tuesday warned against declaring any early conclusions regarding the cause. He did say, however, that there were no indications as of yet that the crash had been due to technical problems, as the helicopter had been in "excellent condition" prior to the flight.
It thus remains unclear whether the crash was caused by poor weather, a technical failure or human error.
The CH-53 Sikorsky has been in use by the Israeli Air Force since the 1960s and is a versatile battlefield, heavy-lift cargo helicopter.
The helicopter can carry up to 55 soldiers or 24 stretchers when used for rescue missions, and has maximum weight capacity of 33 tones. The CH-53 Sikorsky is 88 feet long with flight speed of 193 mph.
In 1992, the IAF began upgrading its CH-53 Sikorsky fleet, introducing advanced navigation, avionic systems and electronic warfare systems, and changing the choppers' blades to titanium ones.
The Israeli and Romanian Air Forces had been training together for the past six years. The agreement on cooperation was signed in September 2003 and the first training session was held in august of 2004.
At the time, several aircraft flew to Romania in order to train at high-altitude terrain while facing different climate conditions than those in the Zionist entity.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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