Iraq helicopter crash 'kills 12'

[Rammy]

A US helicopter has crashed in northern Iraq, killing all passengers and crew, the US military has said.


Twelve people are believed to have been aboard the UH-60 Blackhawk when it came down just before midnight on Saturday.

The US military said its records showed the aircraft was carrying four crew and eight passengers.

The cause of the crash - which happened some seven miles (12km) east of the town of Talafar, near the Syrian border - remains under investigation.

The Blackhawk was part of a two-helicopter team moving between the bases when communications were lost, a US military statement said.

An immediate search and rescue operation was launched and the aircraft was found at about noon on Sunday.

Talafar, about 150km (90 miles) from the Syrian border, is seen as a centre for Iraqi insurgents and is thought to be a staging-post for foreign fighters.

Last September, US and Iraqi forces claimed to have killed 200 insurgents and driven out many more in an assault on the town.

[Frost]

Just heard the news. RIP to the fallen :-(

[Rammy]

Is it just me or did this happen near the same place where that CH-53 crashed because of a sand storm a year ago or something?

[annihilation]

RIP to the fallen!

[Sgt.Axeman1224]

RIP to the fallen

[American Patriot]

RIP to the heroes defending freedom.

read somewhere else that the weather was bad and its supposed to be an accident, tragic nonetheless

[Digital Marine]

:-( I hate it when that happens

RIP to the fallen.

[NcDeuce]

R.I.P. boys.

I think that makes 33 total Black Hawks down since October 2001.

[SGMGSG9]

R.I.P. to the fallen.


NcDeuce, it appears as though you've kept up with black hawk downings. Would you happen to know how many where shoot downs as opposed to mechanical/pilot error? It would be interesting to know.

[2RHPZ]

R.i.p. .................

[daily666]

R.I.P. to the fallen :(

[Hukatus]

R.I.P. to the fallen.


NcDeuce, it appears as though you've kept up with black hawk downings. Would you happen to know how many where shoot downs as opposed to mechanical/pilot error? It would be interesting to know.
there is a list of aircraft incidents in iraq
wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._helicopter_crashes_in_Iraq (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._helicopter_crashes_in_Iraq)

[Andeh]

there is a list of aircraft incidents in iraq
wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._helicopter_crashes_in_Iraq (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._helicopter_crashes_in_Iraq)

Damn, thats alot more choppers than I thought

[daily666]

Damn, thats alot more choppers than I thought

It's nothing compared to helo losses during Vietnam War.

read this: http://www.vhpa.org/heliloss.pdf


Total helicopters destroyed in the Vietnam War was 5,086 out of 11,827

that's almost 50%!

[Midav]

RIP

And honestly, that is a lot less than what I had tought were lost so far *knocks on wood*.

[LordHalbert]

Was it shot down?

[Rammy]

Was it shot down?

According to this site, it says 'Non-Hostile'.

http://icasualties.org/oif/Details.aspx

[Maverick77]

Was it shot down?


no one knows yet

[Damian]

Rip :-( .....

[ABNINF]

Glancing at the Wilkpedia website briefly, it looks like less than half the aircraft were shot down. This testifies to what my dad was complaining about for years. He was a civilian instuctor at the Flight School at Rucker for 27 years. He constantly complained about how the Army was lowering the standards to let people through in order to maintain numbers. When he went through in the height of Vietnam 68-69, if you made less than 90% on any of your tests, you were dropped. He always held his students to a higher standard and would tell them, I only found this out recently, that "My son's an infantryman and his life could be in your hands one day, and I don't train mediocre pilots." I believe that it's only going to be worse with the new Flight School 21 series of thinking, that subsititutes more simulation for flight time, and overall flighttime is reduced, due to the fact that you start your transition earlier. We'll have to wait and see though. SapperOIF is at Rucker right now, and can probably shed more light on it than I can, since only the first couple classes had started FS21 when I left to come over here. RIP to the soldiers and prayers for the families.

[Chatnick]

RIP to the fallen

[EsoognomEhT]

Lets remember chaps that Wiki is not official, it can be editited by everyone. The actual numbers may be different, I'd look for an American military site for the answer

[TuNeRsHaRk]

thats too bad

[PaulClift]

Damn, thats alot more choppers than I thought

Considering the amount of flights daily its hardly suprising, be interesting to know what percentage are lost due to pilot/mechanical failure compared to civilian flights elsewhere, but you would have to take into account the enviroment though, once sand gets in any moving parts it grinds away.