Idaho National Guard: Bad weather, human error caused deadly Black Hawk crash
The three experienced pilots had lost sight of the mountains around them in the thick fog, and were flying by instruments alone when the helicopter went down. Author: Katie Terhune Updated: 1:08 PM MST March 6, 2021
BOISE, Idaho Three Idaho National Guard pilots killed in a helicopter crash last month had lost visibility with the mountains around them in the snow and fog, and were flying by instruments alone when the Black Hawk went down, officials say.
According to the initial findings of the investigation, human error and environmental factors caused the crash. There were no mechanical failures, according to the Idaho National Guard.
4 Feb. 28 marks the 30-year anniversary of the end of the Gulf War – a nearly 7-month battle resulting in almost 300 American deaths.
Mike Durant had, as the saying goes, “a front-row seat to history”.
Long before he became a renowned master aviator, best-selling author, husband and father of six, Durant was a kid growing up with a younger sister in a working-class family in Berlin, northern New Hampshire.
One summer, he worked for an Army National Guard warrant officer who owned a small aviation business with some helicopters and airplanes in his home state. “I got to go flying with him over the White Mountains in New Hampshire. It was the most amazing thing I had experienced at that point in my life and, from that moment on, set my sights on becoming a warrant officer and flying helicopters in the Army.”
The U.S. Park Police flying over the Potomac River.
The Pentagon will be charged with tracking helicopter noise in the Washington, D.C. area under provisions of the recently enacted National Defense Authorization Act. The provision in the massive $740 billion legislation was inserted at the behest of several D.C.-area congressmen who have long lamented the steady rotor din over the nation’s capital and surrounding suburbs. But what all this data will actually accomplish remains to be seen. As in the Los Angeles Basin, the competing pressures of crowded airspace and the aviation needs of public safety and law enforcement limit practical and safe options.
16 WIESBADEN, Germany Echo Company of the 1-214th Aviation Battalion, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, based at Wiesbaden Army Airfield provides a unique capability to the U.S. Army Europe-Africa commander that many people do not know exists. Army fixed-wing aviation provides small jet and turbo-prop platforms such as the UC-35 and C-12 that can fly quickly over long distances and land at small airfields.
“Our normal rotational missions provide a critical lifeline to forward supported areas,” said Lt. Col. Matthew McGraw, Commander of the 1-214th Aviation Battalion. “For the first few months of the pandemic, Army fixed-wing was the only way to get critical medical supplies like testing kits and personal protective equipment, and to retrograde COVID samples for US Army rotational forces in Poland, Romania, and Greece.”