Flashback: July 2010: Wikileaks documents suggest Taliban has capacity to fire on aircraft

This guardian article is from one year ago reveals that the Taliban has had the technology to down Chinook Helicopters and other aircraft for some time, even as NATO,  ISAF, and the U.S. have denied the vulnerability of the aircraft used to ferry special forces into combat.

"It has long been the international coalition's claim that whilst the Taliban might try to acquire technology capable of shooting down aircraft they had failed to do so, and were unlikely to ever succeed.

The question that immediately comes to my mind, and perhaps will be answered in the next few days by someone with far more special forces knowledge than I have access to, is why put so many soldiers (30) on a single Chinook when a single Chinook is so vulnerable? There have to be tactical alternatives? Right? Wrong? Just asking.

UPDATE:

"The military says the crash has not prompted any changes in tactics and downplayed the potential threat posed to Chinooks or other aircraft in the NATO-led force."

Oh, uh, o.k.