Commented on this over in Atrios' comments...

MSNBC is reporting that a Marine CH-46 has gone down with the loss of all souls onboard. Of course the "embedded" so-called journalist with the Corps can't get his/her facts straight. They state that the Army also flies the CH-46, which is completely untrue, the Army flies its big brother, the CH-47 Chinook a far larger and more powerful aircraft.

...The Army, which also uses CH-46s, did not ground its fleet...

So incorrect

But both helicopters, the CH-46 and CH-47 were built by Boeings Vertol Division back in the 60's, and both look very similar (two main rotors in tandem on the roof). Why is this a big deal? Well if the local media whore "in-country" can't get a detail like that correct, who knows what other kind of shit they are shoveling because they are to lazy to push back from the bar or too busy waddling down to the breakfast buffet.

Apparently, there have been two other helicopter accidents in the last 24 hours, an MH-53 (a variation of the Sea Stallion flown by the Air Force) and an Apache. I saw on the weather that there was some significant wind/sand blowing which might have been contributory to the accidents...helicopter engines (in fact most turbine engines) are not particularly efficient with sand coming through them. None of the three crashes has been attributed to hostile action. Luckily both the 53 and the Apache had no fatalities according to the news.