(Source: Matthew Cox – Military.com) – A ‘Disturbing Pattern’ of Deadly Army Black Hawk Crashes Has Lawmakers Asking Questions
A Democratic senator from New York has called on the new defense secretary to investigate a “disturbing pattern” of UH-60 Black Hawk crashes that have claimed the lives of nine Army National Guard soldiers since December 2019.
“Three crashes involving the National Guard’s use of the UH-60 in just over a year raises significant concerns about a systemic issue with the Black Hawk helicopter operation cycle,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a Feb. 5 letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. (…)
The U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama, is investigating the recent Idaho and New York Guard crashes as “disparate events,” Gillibrand said in her letter.
The summary results of the December 2019 Minnesota Guard UH-60 crash investigation concluded that the “helicopter’s number one engine failed during a maximum power check while the number two engine was in an idle setting, causing a dual engine-out condition. The failure was attributed to the incorrect installation of the engine’s hydromechanical unit,” Gillibrand said in the letter.
The investigation also found that the pilots failed to react properly to the critical situation and follow emergency procedures. (…)
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Photo © Airman 1st Class Chase Cannon, U.S. Air Force, as published in ibid
