Bin Laden raid: Chopper’s wreckage returned to US

Experts speculate that aircraft was a secret model with design features to reduce noise.

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has returned the wreckage of a US helicopter used in the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden early this month, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday.

“The wreckage of the helicopter destroyed in the Bin Laden operation was returned over the weekend and is now back in the US,” Colonel Dave Lapan told the news agency.

The helicopter was damaged in a hard landing at Bin Laden’s compound and US special forces deliberately blew it up after gunning down the al Qaeda leader in the May 2 raid, officials said.

Photographs of the tail of the wrecked helicopter fueled speculation among experts and aviation enthusiasts that the aircraft was a secret model with design features to reduce noise or foil radar detection   most likely a modified Blackhawk.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2011.