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Editor: James T. Crouse
Profession: Aviation Accident Attorney

Category: Helicopter Crashes

On August 22, it will have been one year since the Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed shortly after take off in northern Iraq. This crash was the single greatest single loss of life for the 25th Infantry Division since the Vietnam War and the worst helicopter crash in Iraq since January, 2005. The aircraft weighed about 18,000 pounds and carried four crew members and 10 Schofield Barracks soldiers who had been brought in the night before for an attack and were now being picked up for their ride back.

The last radio call received from the pilot was, "1-2 is going down" and the helicopter plummeted to earth, killing all on board. In a 224 page report of the Army's investigation, it tells us how these men died, but a definite answer as to what caused the crash. In the "memorandum for record" it states the chopper went down because of a gouged and cut tail rotor shaft by an unknown foreign object - origin and responsibility for the foreign object causing damage to the tail rotor drive is not known . . . "I find no pilot or crew error". There was no enemy fire reported in the area so it is not thought the aircraft was hit by fire.
A witness stated there was absolutely no reaction time for the crew from the time the tail dropped and spun right to the time it hit the ground.

The Black Hawk is known as the Army's workhorse since 1978 and has accumulated over 4 million flight hours in 1,500 planes delivered to the Army and another 600 to other countries.