{"id":139689,"date":"2024-01-14T14:31:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T21:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=139689"},"modified":"2024-01-14T14:31:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-14T21:31:02","slug":"slaf-helicopter-crash-in-central-africa-defence-ministry-refutes-al-shabaab-hostage-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/01\/14\/slaf-helicopter-crash-in-central-africa-defence-ministry-refutes-al-shabaab-hostage-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"SLAF Helicopter Crash in Central Africa: Defence Ministry Refutes Al-Shabaab Hostage Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Ministry of Defence \u00a0&#8211; Media Centre<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF)&nbsp; initiates Investigations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry of Defence in Sri Lanka strongly refuted the allegations that a group of Sri Lankans was taken hostage by the Al-Shabaab militant group after a SLAF helicopter crash-landed in Somalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SLAF MI 17 helicopter (SMH 4417) was on a routine cargo flight during a United Nations Peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic on January 12 crash-landed at Sam-Oundja&nbsp; during the landing phase due to rotor brownout (RWB) resulting from extreme dusty and sand conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time of the incident, five crew members and 1200 kg of cargo were on board. Two crew members sustained minor injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry of Defence further emphasized that the above five-member crew and the helicopter are safe within the Sri Lankan Contingent in Central African Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SLAF has appointed a panel of investigators to probe the crash of the helicopter and determine the precise cause and extent of the damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry of Defence urges the public to not to be misled by false information. Furthermore, media personnel are informed to reach out to the Ministry for any clarification. &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ministry of Defence \u00a0&#8211; Media Centre The Ministry of Defence in Sri Lanka strongly refuted the allegations that a group of Sri Lankans was taken hostage by the Al-Shabaab militant group after a SLAF helicopter crash-landed in Somalia. The SLAF MI 17 helicopter (SMH 4417) was on a routine cargo flight during a United Nations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}