continued sweetness & light in the Gulf

[waider]

I keep reading stories like this and wondering, well, which is more PR-negative: a constant stream of helicopters having accidents, as is hinted at by the repeated description of these incidents as "emergency landings" with no suggestion as to what the emergency was, or a constant stream of helicopters being shot down or otherwise forced into crashing? Note, the former interpretation appears to be the one the offical PR folk would have you believe in the case of the two choppers which collided late last year, since all eyewitness accounts of an RPG or other missile were dismissed out of hand. Note in the article the explanation for a forced landing by another plane being given as "excessive vibration in one of the engines". I mean, seriously. Is it so bad to say, "we took a hit from a missile"?