KABUL, Oct 21: The pilot of a US military Black Hawk helicopter died when the aircraft crashed near Afghanistan's western city of Herat, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.

The helicopter was on a mission to rescue an electoral educator who had been accidentally shot by his armed escort and needed to be taken to hospital, a spokesman told a briefing in Kabul.

But the Black Hawk crashed as it approached the scene and the US airman was killed, he said. The US military earlier said the accident was caused by technical problems and had injured two crew members.-AFP