Nine dead in second Thai chopper crash: army

BANGKOK - THAI rescuers have found the bodies of all nine people on board a Thai army helicopter that went down earlier this week as it flew to the site of a previous crash, the military said on Friday.
The discovery of the wreckage of the Black Hawk chopper, just metres from the first crash site, brings the toll from the two accidents to 14 in a tragic episode that the outgoing premier said had a 'great impact' on morale.
The Black Hawk was found in dense forests just across the border in Myanmar on Friday morning, three days after it disappeared during a mission to recover the bodies of five soldiers killed in a helicopter accident on Saturday.
'I can confirm that all nine passengers died in the Black Hawk crash,' a spokesman for the central army region said.
Earlier on Friday, Lieutenant General Udomdej Sritabutr, army commander of central region, announced the second chopper had been found 200m north-west from the original crash location.
In Saturday's crash, a Huey helicopter went down in bad weather during a mission to airlift troops from the remote jungle area south-west of Bangkok. -- AFP