Searchers recovered the bodies of six more crewmen Tuesday from the crash of a U.S. Air Force AC-130H gunship off the coast of Kenya, raising the confirmed death toll to seven.
One crew member was missing from the accident Monday night. Six were rescued.Lt. Col. Mike Gannon, speaking from the scene, said most of the bodies were found in or near the plane, which crashed about 200 yards offshore in 10 to 15 feet of water.
The crash came as U.S. troops wound down their mission in Somalia. All troops are due to be withdrawn by the end of the month.
Gannon said the plane was heading from its base in Mombasa, Kenya, for a routine mission over Mogadishu. At least one AC-130 patrols over the city each night in case U.S. ground forces need support against Somali gunmen.
Gannon said the cause of the accident had not been determined.
"It was not an actual crash but more a crash landing. As it landed the airplane stayed pretty much intact," he told AP Network News in a telephone interview from the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi.
The survivors were all in good condition, Gannon said. Three were flown Monday night to a hospital on a U.S. Navy ship off Mogadishu and three were taken to Mombasa Tuesday.
Army Col. Steve Rausch, a U.S. spokesman in Mogadishu, said three men were rescued by a Korean fishing trawler and may have parachuted from the plane as it went down. The other three survivors rode the plane into the water, then made their way to shore and telephoned for help, he said.
The names of all 14 crew members were withheld pending notification of their families.