4 MARINES DIE IN HELICOPTER CRASH

FALCON HEIGHTS, Texas (AP) -- Two military helicopters crashed in flames
while helping the Border Patrol on a drug mission, killing all four Marine
reservists on board. The crash of the AH1W Super Cobra helicopters happened
Wednesday night at Falcon State Park in far South Texas, near the Mexican
border.

"We heard a loud boom and all of a sudden the engines in helicopters quit,
so I went outside and looked and there was a ball of fire," said resident
Larry Shoal. He saw another ball of fire close by.

"There was nobody that could have survived that," the 67-year-old said
Thursday morning. "There was no way to help them."

Each helicopter carried a crew of two, said Armando Carrasco, a spokesman
for Joint Task Force Six, a Defense Department unit that helps the Border
Patrol in efforts to combat drug smuggling.

"The helicopters were conducting a nighttime aviation reconnaissance
counterdrug operation in support of the U.S. Border Patrol," Carrasco said.

Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Joe Kloppel said he had no immediate
information on what might have caused the crash. A collision was certainly
a possibility, he said, but that had not been confirmed.

"It was at night, so that probably complicates (getting details from) any
eyewitnesses that may have seen it," he said.

The helicopter crews were based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., but were
operating out of Fort Bliss in El Paso.

Identities of the dead were withheld pending notification of relatives.

The Joint Task Force Six trains military units while helping federal and
state agencies, most often by providing support in drug missions, said Maj.
Jeff Parks, a spokesman for the Joint Force Headquarters for Homeland Security.

"The reservists have special skills and equipment," he said.

Shoal said the wreckage in the remote state park filled with brush and
cactus was on a road leading to the lake, so people staying at a nearby RV
park were not able to leave their homes until Thursday morning.

"The helicopters are lying right on the road," he said.