Search May Have Found War Photographers Possible Traces Of Four Newsmen Downed In Vietnam Are Uncovered

A team of nine Americans and some 80 Laotian workers dug deep into a steep mountainside Saturday where a helicopter was shot down 28 years ago, killing four news photographers covering the Vietnam War.

After four days of excavation, the search produced many small aircraft parts, two battered and burned steel helmets and several scraps of 35-millimeter film - the type the journalists carried - but no human remains.

“Finding the film really guarantees that we’re looking in the right place,” said Lisa Hoshower, an American anthropologist supervising the archaeological-type project.

Army Capt. Jeffrey Price, commander of the Hawaii-based search team, concurred, calling it unlikely that a helicopter on a strictly military mission would have carried such items.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Laos panhandle bordering Vietnam was heavily defended by Hanoi’s forces and attacked incessantly by American aircraft.

While few pathways are now visible, the area is still studded with bomb craters, old gun positions, wrecked trucks and unexploded cluster bombs that were dropped to render the terrain unusable.

The South Vietnamese helicopter was shot down over the trail on Feb. 10, 1971. Witnesses said it exploded in a fireball, killing all 11 aboard - the four newsmen, a South Vietnamese army photographer, two senior officers and the four-man crew.