Black Hawk down in Texas killing all 7
Posted 11-30-2004 at 04:07 AM
An Army helicopter crashed and burned Monday after hitting a TV transmission-tower wire in the fog, killing all seven soldiers aboard, military officials said.
Warning lights on the tower were not working, a TV station official said.
The UH-60 Black Hawk, bound for the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana with seven soldiers from Fort Hood aboard, went down in a field about 30 miles northeast of Fort Hood.
The fog was so thick when emergency crews arrived that they could not see more than halfway up the tower, authorities said.
Everyone aboard was killed, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood. Their names were not immediately released.
Rock Eicke, who lives about a quarter-mile from the crash site, said he was getting ready for work about 7 a.m. when he was startled by a loud metallic rattling sound. He said he looked out his window and saw the helicopter hitting the ground.
"All of the sudden I just saw a big ball of fire erupt from the ground and then boom, an explosion," Eicke told The Associated Press.
Eicke called 911 and then accompanied a deputy who needed directions to the crash site. Eicke said he saw four dead soldiers -- two outside the helicopter and two inside the burning wreckage.
"It was burning to the point that we couldn't have done anything," Eicke said. "These two people that were laying there, there wasn't any question that they were alive. They were dead."
Ken Brown, a constable in McClennan County, said he and emergency crews could see the burning wreckage as they approached the scene, but it had burned out by the time they arrived.
Base spokesman Dan Hassett did not know what kind of mission the helicopter was on when it crashed. Fort Hood officials and an accident investigation team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, was heading to the scene just south of Waco.
The helicopter hit a guy wire that stabilizes a 1,800-foot television broadcasting tower, said Jerry Pursley, general manager of Waco-Temple-Killeen television station KXXV, which owns the tower. The tower itself was not hit, he said.
The Black Hawk, which the military began using in 1979, is the Army's main troop transport helicopter, carrying soldiers and contractors from one U.S. base to another. A crew of four usually flies the Black Hawk, which can carry 15 people.
In November 2003, 17 soldiers were killed when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Iraq, apparently as the result of enemy fire. At the time it was the deadliest single event for U.S. troops in Iraq.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/11/29/helicopter.crash.ap/index.html
Source: CNN.com
An Army helicopter crashed and burned Monday after hitting a TV transmission-tower wire in the fog, killing all seven soldiers aboard, military officials said.
Warning lights on the tower were not working, a TV station official said.
The UH-60 Black Hawk, bound for the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana with seven soldiers from Fort Hood aboard, went down in a field about 30 miles northeast of Fort Hood.
The fog was so thick when emergency crews arrived that they could not see more than halfway up the tower, authorities said.
Everyone aboard was killed, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood. Their names were not immediately released.
Rock Eicke, who lives about a quarter-mile from the crash site, said he was getting ready for work about 7 a.m. when he was startled by a loud metallic rattling sound. He said he looked out his window and saw the helicopter hitting the ground.
"All of the sudden I just saw a big ball of fire erupt from the ground and then boom, an explosion," Eicke told The Associated Press.
Eicke called 911 and then accompanied a deputy who needed directions to the crash site. Eicke said he saw four dead soldiers -- two outside the helicopter and two inside the burning wreckage.
"It was burning to the point that we couldn't have done anything," Eicke said. "These two people that were laying there, there wasn't any question that they were alive. They were dead."
Ken Brown, a constable in McClennan County, said he and emergency crews could see the burning wreckage as they approached the scene, but it had burned out by the time they arrived.
Base spokesman Dan Hassett did not know what kind of mission the helicopter was on when it crashed. Fort Hood officials and an accident investigation team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, was heading to the scene just south of Waco.
The helicopter hit a guy wire that stabilizes a 1,800-foot television broadcasting tower, said Jerry Pursley, general manager of Waco-Temple-Killeen television station KXXV, which owns the tower. The tower itself was not hit, he said.
The Black Hawk, which the military began using in 1979, is the Army's main troop transport helicopter, carrying soldiers and contractors from one U.S. base to another. A crew of four usually flies the Black Hawk, which can carry 15 people.
In November 2003, 17 soldiers were killed when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Iraq, apparently as the result of enemy fire. At the time it was the deadliest single event for U.S. troops in Iraq.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/11/29/helicopter.crash.ap/index.html
