(BNA): President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, First Vice President Amrullah Saleh and other high-ranking officials on Thursday morning attended the funeral ceremony of eight Afghan Air Force pilots and personnel that lost their lives in two helicopter collision in southern Helmand province the other day The Afghan Air Forces service members were martyred in Helmand in the early hours of Wednesday morning when two military helicopters collided. President Ghani and VP Saleh commended the dedication and commitment of those martyred and said “government will always support families of the martyrs”. Referring to the recent incident in Helmand, the President said that the martyrs of this incident were the guardians of the country and all the people, and the whole nation was proud of them. The two helicopters had reportedly dropped off reinforcement troops in the embattled province and were evacuating wounded soldiers when they collided. The Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday that helicopters had crashed due to “technical issues” while taking off but that the incident was under investigation.