NASA helping to determine cause of helicopter crash

JERUSALEM, March 18 (JTA) — NASA scientists are set to use a “supercomputer” to simulate February’s collision of two military helicopters in northern Israel. The panel investigating the crash, in which 73 soldiers and crew were killed, had turned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for assistance in determining its cause, Israeli media reported. The two helicopters were taking troops to positions in southern Lebanon. Two Israel Defense Force representatives have already flown to NASA laboratories in California, and will return with the results of the test, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported. A similar simulation was conducted by the Israeli air force after the 1977 crash of a military helicopter in the Judean Desert.