Posted on 02/17/2023 6:44:35 AM PST by Paal Gulli
The Tennessee National Guard has identified the two pilots killed in the Black Hawk helicopter crash Wednesday in Alabama. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Daniel Wadham of Joelton, Tennessee, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Danny Randolph of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, were the two officers involved in the fatal crash.
"Words cannot express my sorrow for the loss of these two Tennessee National Guardsmen," Brig. Gen. Warner Ross, Tennessee’s Adjutant General, said. "It is felt not only within the ranks of the Tennessee National Guard, but across our entire military community."
The National Guard shared that Wadham served 15 years and Randolph served 13 years. Wadham and Randolph were assigned to A Company, 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion, from Nashville’s Berry Field Air National Guard Base....
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This incident puts an exclamation mark on the saying, "Freedom isn't free."
There is a video circulating taken from a doorbell cam of the last seconds before impact. I won't link to it here but it's easy to find if you search on it.
It likely will be several months -- if ever -- before a cause is identified.
A correction to the headline, TNG didn't "identify" these men because they were never unidentified (Does no one employ editors any more? Or even qualified journalists?).
The video was odd, like the thing just fell from the sky. It made me wonder if the pilot became incapacitated somehow...
This happened less than a mile from my niece’s house in Harvest AL. (Just outside of Huntsville). Her little boys’ school called and had her come get them. They normally ride a bus the exact route where this crash happened.
Why is a Blackhawk flying without a crew chief?????? I have flown all around Germany on them and always had a third set of eyes.
A witness reported that the engine sounded “sick” before the crashed.
There are helicopters all around here. I always figured they came from Redstone Arsenal. The narrow valley in front of my house is used for training sometimes. Once I watched a Kiawah(?) with a radar dome slowly playing hid-and-seek down the valley. It was followed about 5 minutes later by 2 Cobras flying balls to the wall and treetop level. Pretty cool.
Maybe vaccine induced sudden death got him, but kinda sounds like the vehicle wasn’t in top shape from witness descriptions
What you describe sounds to be a 'Delta' model, the OH-58D.
The UH-60 has been in service more than 40 years, which speaks to it being a mature, well-sorted platform with a lot of flight hours in combat. Which translates into a YUGE amount of worst-case-scenario R&D for the manufacturer. I don't recall any major problems except back in the 1980s when the Army's Black Hawks were found to be sensitive to interference from high-power radio signals:
... An Army Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, while flying past a radio broadcast tower in West Germany in 1987, experienced an uncommanded stabilator movement. Spurious warning light indications and false cockpit warnings were also reported. Subsequent investigation and testing showed that the stabilator system was affected by EM1 from high intensity radiated fields (HIRF). The Blackhawk has a conventional mechanically linked flight control system with hydraulic assist. The stabilator system, however, uses transmitted digital signals (fly-by-wire) to automatically adjust its position relative to control and flight parameters. These digital signals are highly susceptible to HIRF. When the Blackhawk was initially designed, the Army did not routinely fly near large RF emitters. The Navy version of the Blackhawk, the SB-60 Seahawk, however, has not experienced similar EM1 problems because it is hardened against the severe EME aboard modern ships. Despite the Army identifying several hundred worldwide emitters that could cause problems and instructing its pilots to observe proper clearance distances, between 1981 and 1987 five Blackhawk helicopters crashed and killed or injured all on board. In each crash, the helicopter flew too near radio transmitters. The long-term solution was to increase shielding of sensitive electronics and provide as a backup some automatic control resets....[emphasis added]When the Army added similar shielding, the problem went away. Which probably had as much to do with Army pilots avoiding anything resembling a radar dish or radio aerial on a ship as it did with the added shielding.
A dear friend who died recently had been an Army helicopter crewchief from before Inchon until after Vietnam. More than one time I heard him say, "When better helicopters are built, Sikorsky will build them."
Very strange how it dropped like a rock, straight down. Never seen that before while it remained parallel to the ground.
Saw the same thing. Wonder if they lost a main rotor blade.
That’s what killed my cousin (a WO4) - his Apache lost a main rotor blade - zero chance of recovery from that.....
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