Nepal says wreckage of missing US Marine helicopter found

Nepal's military said Friday that it had located the wreckage of a U.S. Marine helicopter that disappeared Tuesday while conducing disaster relief operations in Nepal.
Chief of army operations Maj. Gen. Binoj Basnyat told the Associated Press wreckage of the missing chopper was spotted in the mountains northeast of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu. Basnyat said no signs of life could be seen from the air, but had no information about the fate of the six U.S. Marines and two Nepalese soldiers who were on board the UH-1Y Huey helicopter when it vanished.
Basnyat added that ground troops are being sent to survey the wreckage on the mountainous terrain. Many areas in that region of Nepal are not reachable by air or road.
There was no immediate confirmation of the report by the U.S. military. U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Col. Steve Warren had told reporters Wednesday that efforts to find the missing helicopter were being classified as a search-and-rescue mission, not a search-and-recovery mission.
"We still remain optimistic here and in Nepal," Warren said at the time.
The missing helicopter was part of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469. It had just dropped off supplies at one area and was en route to the town of Charikot. The town was among the areas hardest-hit by Tuesday's magnitude-7.3 earthquake that killed at least 65 people.
Nepal is still struggling to recover from a devastating quake nearly three weeks ago that left more than 8,000 dead.

 The Associated THE BEST "UG" contributed to this report.