Seven American searchers for Vietnam War missing were among 16 people killed in a helicopter crash in central Vietnam today, a US Embassy spokesman quoted Vietnamese authorities as saying.
The embassy has been informed by Vietnamese authorities that a helicopter went down in Quang Binh province this afternoon with seven Americans and nine Vietnamese aboard, including crew, the spokesman said.
Reportedly there were no survivors.
A Vietnamese soldier at Quang Binh province's military command centre told Reuters all 16 people aboard the helicopter were killed when it crashed into a mountainside in Thanh Tranh commune of Bo Trach district, about 700 metres from Vietnam's main north-south road artery, Highway One.
"The helicopter crashed into the mountain in thick fog", he said. "There were 16 people aboard and all were killed".
The commune is about 450 km (280 miles) south of Hanoi, the national capital.
The embassy spokesman said the preliminary assumption was that the Americans were military personnel, although teams searching for US war missing often include civilians.
He said steps were being taken by US officials and Vietnamese authorities to identify those killed and inform their next of kin.
An official at the airport in the town of Vinh, from where the helicopter took off, said he had heard it had been chartered to carry soldiers involved in searching for American servicemen missing from the Vietnam War.
The United States still lists nearly 1,500 servicemen as missing in action from the Vietnam War.
Washington terms accounting for these missing personnel its highest priority in its relations with its former enemy Hanoi and conducts regular searches involving both US military and civilian personnel and Vietnamese military and civilians.