Weather halts senators’ flight

WASHINGTON – A helicopter carrying three senior U.S. senators made an emergency landing Thursday in the mountains of Afghanistan because of a snowstorm.

Sens. John Kerry, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel were aboard one of two helicopters that made emergency landings, Kerry said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press from Turkey. Staffers were on the second chopper, Kerry said.

No one was injured, Kerry said. The senators returned to Bagram Air Base in a motor convoy and left for Turkey.

“The weather closed in on us,” Kerry said. “So the pilot exercised his judgment that we were better off putting down there, and we all agreed.”

The lawmakers were on a trip this week that included stops in India, Turkey and Pakistan, where they observed the elections earlier this week.