THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190394
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: FORT CAMPBELL, KY. LENGTH: 87 lines
Two Army transport helicopters collided and plummeted to the ground Tuesday just before soldiers were to descend to a mockup of a downed helicopter and ``rescue'' soldiers pretending to be injured. Six soldiers were killed and at least 16 were injured.
The afternoon accident - the military's second fatal helicopter collision in just over a month - occurred when the propellers of the two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters hit each other, Lt. Col. Ray Whitehead said at Army headquarters at the Pentagon.
The helicopters fell from treetop level, and narrowly avoided crashing directly on top of the area where soldiers on the ground were lying around a plywood mockup of another helicopter, said Maj. Joe Howell, a post spokesman who witnessed the crash.
Howell said he did not believe the helicopters had gotten into position yet to let the soldiers rappel out.
At least 35 people were involved in the accident, but it was unclear exactly how many were injured. Howell said at least two civilians watching the exercise suffered minor injuries from flying debris.
Four of the injured were in critical condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. The rest were being treated at the hospital on post.
Howell said about 22 civilians were watching the mock medical evacuation. The two helicopters were to hover overhead, and soldiers were to descend on ropes to treat the injured and then airlift them away.
Some of the spectators were from the Association of the U.S. Army, or AUSA. AUSA is devoted to boosting cooperation between Army bases and businesses in towns nearby.
They were sitting on bleachers about 100 yards from the crash site. The group just happened to be at the post at the time of the exercise and had been allowed to watch, Howell said.
Howell said one civilian videotaped the accident. The tape has been turned over to Army investigators from Fort Rucker, Ala.
One helicopter's fuselage remained intact. The other fuselage broke into large pieces.
The day was sunny and there was little wind, Howell said. The exercise area is surrounded by trees, but Howell said the helicopters did not have to maneuver around them.
The troops involved were part of the 101st Aviation Regiment. The UH-60 Black Hawk is the Army's standard assault/utility helicopter. Each aircraft carried a squad of about 12 soldiers and a crew of four.
The accident is the latest in a series of collisions and crashes of military helicopters that have killed dozens of soldiers both here and abroad in the last three months.
It was the second fatal crash in just over a month.
On May 10, two Marine helicopters collided in the dark at Camp Lejeune, N.C., killing 14 servicemen and seriously injuring two. The CH-46E Sea Knight troop carrier and an AH-1W Super Cobra assault ship were participating in war games involving thousands of British and American troops.
A Marine spokesman at Camp Lejeune said Tuesday that there still was no word on the cause of that crash.
The pilots in that incident were wearing night-vision goggles, but Pentagon officials said after the accidents that all the proper procedures apparently had been followed.
The Kentucky crash Tuesday is the second at Fort Campbell this year. Five soldiers were killed when an MH-47E Chinook crashed near the Tennessee border on March 7 during a training mission.
Two Australian UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collided June 12 on a training exercise in Australia, killing 18 commandos and crew members.
The Kentucky crash comes five days after the Navy grounded all of its giant CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters, as well as a variant called the MH-53E Sea Dragon. The grounding was caused by problems with rotor bearings. The Navy has 154 Super Stallions and 45 Sea Dragons.
The June 13 grounding came in the wake of a May 9 crash of a Sea Stallion at an airfield used by the aircraft's maker, Sikorsky, in Stratford, Conn.
In that case, a Sea Stallion that was about to go into use to transport cargo for the White House lost its main rotor, flipped over and blew up. Four Sikorsky employees were killed.
Sikorsky also makes the helicopters involved in the Kentucky crash.
On April 15, two smaller Army helicopters - OH-58 Kiowas - collided on a training mission at Fort Bliss, Texas. Three crew members were killed. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and
Knight-Ridder News Service. ILLUSTRATION: Map
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT MILITARY U.S. ARMY
FATALITIES INJURIES by CNB