Ghazni, Afghanistan ? U.S. soldiers on Thursday examined the charred wreckage of a military helicopter that plunged into the Afghan desert, killing at least 16 people in the deadliest incident for Americans since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The victims were 13 U.S. service members and three civilians working for the American government, whose nationalities weren’t released. Two more soldiers were missing after the crash, which officials blamed on bad weather.

An Afghan soldier takes position during a sandstorm, to provide security in the site where a U.S. military helicopter crashed near Ghazni city. At least 16 people died Wednesday in the deadliest incident for Americans in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The CH-47 Chinook went down Wednesday in a sandstorm near Ghazni city, 80 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, as it headed for the main U.S. base at Bagram after a mission in the insurgent-plagued south.

Officials reported no sign of enemy fire and suggested the bad weather might have caused a fatal pilot error or technical problem. A second Chinook made it safely back.

American troops could be seen Thursday through the dust whipped up by strong, icy winds, cordoning off the site with tape, taking photographs and unloading blue plastic sheeting from a truck parked next to a chunk of wreckage.

Abdul Rahman Sarjang, the Ghazni police chief, said more than a dozen bodies were taken to a nearby American base.

While the cabin was largely intact, “the main section was very badly burned because it was near the fuel tanks,” Sarjang said. “The pieces are all over the place.”

According to U.S. government statistics, at least 135 American soldiers have now died in and around Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led war on terrorism, began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.