Hope of finding copter victims alive fades

BEIJING, June 5 (UPI) -- China's military is losing hope of finding survivors from among 19 people aboard a quake-relief helicopter missing since Saturday, officials said.

"It's been more than 100 hours since the helicopter went missing in the quake zone, and chances are growing slimmer for the19 people to remain alive," said an official with the military command in Chengdu in the worst quake-hit Sichuan province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The Mi-171 military chopper with a five-member crew and 14 earthquake victims went missing in the Yunhua mountain range while returning from Yingxiu Township. A search team, which included more than 10,000 Chinese soldiers and paramilitary forces, has been combing the rugged region to locate the helicopter.

The search effort had been hampered by the difficult terrain, huge landslides and innumerable aftershocks, the report said.

"We will go further in searching for the helicopter and missing people with more powerful technology," the military official said. "We, like everybody else, are expecting to find them."

The helicopter's crew, led by Sr. Col Qiu Guanghua, was on its 64th rescue flight since the May 12 quake when it went missing, Xinhua said. In earlier missions, Qiu's team had helped bring out 234 victims from the quake zone.