WATCHING OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM unfold, one might be left wondering what’s going on with the coalition’s air operations. Why is it that so many helicopters, several carrying precious human cargo, have crashed? Coming in just the first five days of the war, the crashes have even more of an impact because they have heralded some of the war’s first casualties.

The coalition has lost nearly a half dozen helicopters in less than a week of fighting, resulting in 19 deaths and two pilots captured. On the flip side, only one coalition fix-wing aircraft has been lost: a British GR4 Tornado attack jet, which was shot down accidentally by a U.S. Patriot Missile battery.