U.S. Army Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters are widely used transport aircraft for the U.S. Military. first introduced in 1979 they have been used in very major conflict since then.
Today they are equipped with advanced avionics and electronics, such as global positioning systems. With that being said the helicopter has had numerous safety problems in the past some attributable to their age.
Since 1999, 50 soldiers so far have died and 40 have been injured in Black Hawk accidents, including the one on Tuesday that killed 5 Ft. Riley soldiers. The five soldiers were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Randy Billings of Heavener, Oklahoma; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua Silverman of Scottsdale, Arizona; Sgt Peter Bohler of Willow Spring, North Carolina; Sgt 1st Class Omar Forde of Marietta, Georgia; and Spc Terry Gordon of Shubuta, Mississippi.
Last May, hundreds of Black Hawk helicopters were grounded because of a problem detected in one helicopter’s transmission.
In 2010 a Blackhawk crash was attributed to “technical problems” (source: 9 US troops killed in Helicopter crash http://www.cbsnews.com/news/9-us-troops-killed-in-afghan-copter-crash/
A more recent report published in “Aircraft Survivability” in Summer 2010 a total of 375 U.S. helicopters have been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan till 2009. 70 U.S. helicopters have been downed by hostile fire and the other 305 are classified as non-hostile and non-combat events (source: http://defensetech.org/2010/08/19/helicopters-equipped-with-acoustic-shot-detection-bound-
Supposing the Blackhawk was not shot down by the enemy – and it isn’t found out to be an act of sabotage – the focus turns to maintenance issues and problems.
A cursory look at information regarding maintenance issues for the Blackhawk going back 24 months reveal a host of problems, including such things as “fractured bolts”, discovered during routine maintenance on helicopters in the Australian Army.
As far as I am aware the U.S. Army has not investigated this aspect as part of the most recent crash in Afghanistan?
According to that report a thorough engineering investigation was carried out following the discovery of the “defective bolts.” It went on to say that “the engineering investigation indicated that the defective bolts were confined to a single manufacturer’s batch and were not a fleet wide issue. The defective batch of bolts has been quarantined from use” (source article: Australia’s Blackhawk’s return to the sky http://www.brahmand.com/news/Australias-Black-Hawk-helicopters-return-to-the-sky/8882/1/13.html).
It is also well known that U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters are reaching their service life goal of 25 years in fact they have surpassed that in many cases:
“Elements of the US Army Aviation UH-60A/l Blackhawk helicopter fleet will begin reaching their service life goal of 25 years in 2002. In order for the fleet to remain operationally effective through the time period 2025-2030 the aircraft will need to go through an inspection, refurbishment, and modernization process that will validate the structural integrity of the airframe, incorporate improvements in sub-systems so as to reduce maintenance requirements, and modernize the mission equipment and avionics to the levels compatible with Force XXI and Army After Next (AAN) demands. A Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) is planned for the UH-60 beginning in FY99. The UH-60 modernization program will identify material requirements to effectively address known operational deficiencies to ensure the Black Hawk is equipped and capable of meeting battlefield requirements through the 2025-2030 timeframe. Primary modernization areas for consideration are: increased lift, advanced avionics (digital communications and navigation suites), enhanced aircraft survivability equipment (ASE), increased reliability and maintainability (R & M), airframe service life extension (SLEP), and reduced operations and support (O & S) costs. Suspense date for the approved Operational Requirements Document (ORD) is December 1998.” (source: http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/air/rotary/sh60.html).
We repeatedly called the Pentagon’s press office to inquire about the cause of this latest crash – official’s there parrot the same thing “the incident is still under investigation.”
When asked if grounding the military’s Blackhawk fleet is appropriate in this situation an official (who refused to go on record) indicated “that the US military relies heavily on Blackhawk helicopters and could not fulfill their mission objectives in Afghanistan without those helicopter – so the answer is probably not.”
In the meantime the families of the service member killed deserve answers – not excuses and delays in this situation. We also pray to God that another Blackhawk doesn’t crash due to what could be ongoing maintenance issues and problems the military can’t or won’t admit at this point.