Idaho’s Black Hawk crash was the fourth on a U.S. flight in just over a year
The Black Hawk helicopter training crash that killed three Idaho National Guard members Tuesday night was the latest in a run of such crashes around the country. It is also not the first fatal helicopter crash in Idaho involving members of the National Guard.
The Tuesday incident just outside of Boise was at least the fourth deadly crash in recent months involving a Black Hawk in the U.S., according to media reports.
Here’s what is known about the four crashes:
▪ Idaho, Feb. 2, 2021: Col. Christopher Burt, the Idaho Army National Guard’s state aviation officer, said a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter last made contact at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday evening, and an emergency locator transmitter was activated just after 8 p.m. Air and land search crews were activated and later found the downed aircraft and personnel at around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday morning. The helicopter was on a training flight.
▪ New York, Jan. 20, 2021: Three members of the New York Army National Guard were killed when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter based in Rochester, New York, crashed during a routine training mission, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. An eyewitness to the crash later told the newspaper his house shook when the helicopter hit the ground, and he could see flames from his home a half-mile away from the crash site.
▪ California, Aug. 27, 2020: Two men were killed and three others were injured when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training exercise near San Clemente Island, California, according to The Associated Press. The two killed belonged to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment of the U.S. Army based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and both enlisted in the Army as Black Hawk repairmen, according to a statement from the U.S. Army. Army officials categorized the fatal crash as an “aircraft mishap.”
▪ Minnesota, Dec. 5, 2019: Three Minnesota National Guard members were killed when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed near St. Cloud, Minnesota, in early December 2019. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the three-man crew was conducting a maintenance flight when an engine failed and the helicopter crashed. An investigation later revealed that an improper installation of an engine’s hydromechanical unit caused the engine to fail, leading to the fatal crash.
One Army member was killed and two were injured in an April 2017 crash on a Maryland golf course, according to The Washington Post. The widow of the helicopter crew chief filed a lawsuit against the Black Hawk’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. The lawsuit challenged the safety of the Black Hawk. That also was a training mission.
A UH-60 Black Hawk crash in March 2015 also claimed the lives of 11 members of the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army and Louisiana National Guard after the helicopter went down off the coast of the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola. The aircraft was conducting night training in poor weather when it disappeared. The wreckage was later found in the Santa Rosa Sound near Fort Walton Beach, Florida, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Another Idaho Army National Guard helicopter, an Apache based at Gowen Field, crashed on Nov. 6, 2014, killing Guard members Jon Hartway, 43, of Kuna, and Stien Gearhart, 50, of Meridian. They were on a training mission when runaway RPMs triggered an automatic shutdown of both engines. The helicopter crashed in a field south of Boise, killing both men.
Gearhart and Hartway were experienced, highly rated pilots who had served in combat in Afghanistan.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 10:53 AM.
