5 crewmen missing after Army chopper crashes near Oahu
By AnneClaire Stapleton, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Dakin Andone, CNN
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Story highlights
- Wheeler Army Airfield lost contact with UH-60 Black Hawk late Tuesday
- Helicopters and boats are searching the area; a debris field has been spotted
(CNN)An Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went down during a training exercise about 2 miles off the Hawaiian island of Oahu, according to the US Coast Guard.
Responders are searching for five missing crewmen.
The aircraft went down Tuesday night off the largely uninhabited Kaena Point on the west side of the island.
Two Black Hawk air crews were training between Kaena Point and Dillingham Airfield, a few miles east, when communications were lost, the Coast Guard said.
Three helicopters, a Coast Guard cutter and response boat and the Honolulu Fire Department were among those responding.
The Coast Guard spotted a debris field near Kaena Point at 11:28 p.m. (5:28 a.m. ET), roughly 80 minutes after personnel at Wheeler Army Airfield in central Oahu lost communications with the helicopter. According to CNN affiliate KHON, it appears that a fuselage and a helmet were found.
"As we pick up debris, we'll bring that back here and we'll assemble that, but investigators will eventually delve into what may or may not have caused this," said Lt. Col. Curt Kellogg, a spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division, in a news conference Wednesday.
Weather in the area is partly cloudy with winds of 15 to 25 mph and 2-foot seas.
The UH-60 is an Army utility helicopter used in air assaults, air cavalry and as a medical evacuation unit.
Other aircraft tragedies
The crash of the UH-60 is the latest in a series of recent US military aircraft crashes.
Earlier this month, three Marines were declared dead after their aircraft crashed off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Of the 26 personnel onboard the MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, 23 were rescued.
The bodies of 1st Lt. Benjamin Cross, Cpl. Nathaniel Ordway and Pfc. Ruben Velasco were not found, according to a Marine Expeditionary Unit spokeswoman.
In July, 15 Marines and one Navy corpsman died after their KC-130T aircraft crashed in Mississippi. The military transport plane was moving personnel and equipment from North Carolina to a Naval Air Facility in El Centro, California. The troops were then to be taken to a base in Yuma, Arizona, for pre-deployment training.
Both crashes prompted the US Marine Corps to order all its aircraft grounded for 24 hours this month so unit commanders could focus "on the fundamentals of safe flight operations, standardization, and combat readiness."
The aircraft were not all grounded at the same time.
The Army lost another UH-60 Black Hawk in April when it went down on a golf course in Leonardtown, Maryland, during a training exercise. One crew member was killed.
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Black Hawk helicopter with 5 crew members on board crashes off Hawaii, Coast Guard says
By Travis Fedschun
Published August 16, 2017
Fox News
Army helicopter crashes off coast of Oahu
U.S. Coast Guard and military crews are searching for five crew members in the ocean off the coast of Hawaii after the Army Black Hawk helicopter they were flying on crashed in the ocean late Tuesday.
The Coast Guard said it received a call around 10:08 p.m. from personnel at Wheeler Army Airfield saying the base lost communications with one of its UH-60 Black Hawk aircrews.
Capt. David Jenkins said crewmembers from the Honolulu Fire Department found parts of a fuselage and a helmet on a debris field, which officials spotted around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday near Kaena Point off the island of Oahu.
A Coast Guard plane, several boats and a shore patrol with the Honolulu Fire Department are searching for the five crew members.
Two Black Hawk aircrews were reportedly conducting training exercises between Kaena Point and Dillingham Airfield around the time communications were lost, according to the Coast Guard.
It's not clear what may have caused the crash, but the Coast Guard said the weather on scene currently has 11 mph winds and 2-foot seas.
Night training offshore is routine, Lt. Col. Curtis Kellogg, public affairs officer for the Army's 25th Infantry Division, told the Associated Press.
The search began immediately after one aircrew lost visual and video contact with the other helicopter, Kellogg said.
The two helicopters are elements of the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade.
The UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-bladed, twin-engine utility helicopter manufactured for the Army by Sikorsky Aircraft starting in the 1970s.
More than 3,000 Black Hawk aircraft are in service around the world, according to Sikorsky's parent company Lockheed Martin. The U.S. Army owns 2,300 of them.
Kaena Point is northwest of Honolulu.
Date: 15-AUG-2017
Time: ~21:30LT
Type:
Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk
Owner/operator: US Army
Registration:
C/n / msn:
Fatalities: Fatalities: / Occupants: 5
Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location: 2 miles W of Kaena Point, Oahu, HI -
United States of America Phase: En route
Nature: Military
Departure airport: Wheeler Army Airfield
Destination airport:
Narrative:
The Black Hawk went missing between Kaena Point and Oahu's Dillingham. A spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division, said two helicopters were taking part in a nighttime training mission and, at 9:30 p.m, the second helicopter lost visual and radio contact with the first one.
The missing helicopter crashed at sea, c2mi offshore. Coast Guard Hercules and Army Black Hawk aircrews spotted debris near Kaena Point, Oahu at 11:28 p.m.
Sources:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/16/black-hawk-helicopter-with-5-crew-members-on-board-crashes-off-hawaii-coast-guard-says.html
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/five-missing-after-u-s-army-helicopter-goes-down-off-hawaii-1.3548115
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-hawaii-plane-crash-idUSKCN1AW1JD
http://abcnews.go.com/US/missing-report-downed-army-helicopter-off-hawaii/story?id=49247820
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OAHU, Hawaii – A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has reportedly crashed with five crew aboard approximately two miles west of Kaena Point, Oahu.
Soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment conduct an air assault mission using six UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters at Wheeler Army Airfield in Wahiawa, Hawaii, on June 8, 2015.
The crash occurred late Tuesday night, according to a release from the U.S. Coast Guard.
Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Command Center in Honolulu received a call at 10:08 p.m. from personnel at Wheeler Army Airfield saying they had lost contact with one of their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
A debris field was spotted near Kaena Point by the Coast Guard Hercules and Army Black Hawk aircrews at 11:28 p.m.
A search is now underway for the five missing aircrewmen.
The downed helicopter was one of two conducting training between Kaena Point and Dillingham Airfield when communications were lost.
Responding to the search are an HC-130 Hercules airplane aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point, MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point, Coast Guard Cutter Ahi (WPB 87364) and crew, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in Honolulu, 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boatcrew from Coast Guard Station Honolulu, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter aircrew from Wheeler Army Airfield, and shore patrol and a boatcrew from Honolulu Fire Department.