The identities of the victims were not immediately released until their families could be notified. Their bodies were driven in ambulances to Hanoi, and were to be returned to Hawaii later in the week. Childress said no decision has been made whether the MIA mission would go on. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the overall program accounting for MIAs and recovering their remains will continue. The helicopter was a Vietnamese military aircraft and its pilot was Vietnamese.
Every mission is a dangerous mission.
It's a very difficult area to operate in. The Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, based in Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, has searched for MIA remains from the Indochina War in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China since 1992, and in recent years has expanded operations to include World War II and Korean War MIA recovery cases. Vietnamese police confirmed on Sunday earlier U.S. military reports that the helicopter was carrying 16 people. Initially, they had reported that 20 people were aboard. The sky was hazy when the helicopter crashed at mid-afternoon near Thanh Trach in Quang Binh province's Bo Trach district, officials said.