A UH Tiger attack helicopter of the German Army Aviation Corps was on a routine patrol monitoring ‘confrontations’ northeast of Gao in central Mali when it went down suddenly with no distress call, killing both crew. After MINUSMA secured the crash site, enemy ground fire was ruled out as a probable cause and the aircraft’s data recorder was taken for further analysis. The four UH Tigers deployed to Mali had been upgraded to the Afghanistan Stabilization German Army Rapid Deployment (ASGARD) standard, allowing them to operate in hotter and dustier conditions than had previously been the case. The remaining three UH Tigers in Mali have been limited to emergency missions only until the cause of the crash is determined. [source]
