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John Eacott
13th Jan 2009, 02:41
A Blackhawk crashed at the Texas A & M campus this afternoon, with one fatal.

One dead in helicopter crash on A&M campus
by Patrick Tolbert

COLLEGE STATION - One person is confirmed dead and four injured after a helicopter crashed Monday on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station.

According to University officials, an Army National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter "fell abruptly to the ground" on an open field adjacent to Duncan Dining Hall.

The helicopter was carrying five people, four Army National Guard members and a lieutenant with the ROTC Staff at Texas A&M.

Three patients were taken to The College Station Medical Center where all three are in critical condition. Two patients were transported to St. Joseph's Hospital in Bryan where their condition is unknown.

Witnesses report seeing five helicopters, one of which was flying about 200 feet off the ground. The same helicopter is the one believed to have gone down.

A second witness told KRHD that the tail rotor appeared to break, causing the helicopter to spin freely in the air before crashing to the ground.

The helicopter, along with 190 cadets in the university's Corps of Cadets, were participating in the ROTC Winter Field Training Exercises taking place at the university. Camp Mabry officials confirmed the chopper was part of the Texas Army National Guard based there
KXXV (http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9660827&nav=menu509_2) link with video report.

http://assets.mediaspanonline.com/prod/1805507/copter-crash-1-mcd_w300.jpg

The Eagle.com (http://www.theeagle.com/local/Blackhawk-crashes-on-A-M-campus--1-dead--4-injured) with a series of photos :sad:

robin303
13th Jan 2009, 02:56
Damn this happened close to where I live.


http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w83/robin303/UH-60.jpg

206Fan
13th Jan 2009, 21:30
Texas – An Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed Monday in a field on the campus of Texas A&M University, killing one person and injuring four others aboard.
The Army UH-60 helicopter crashed Monday afternoon during training exercises near the Corps of Cadets field on the school's College Station campus, about 100 miles northwest of Houston. No one on the ground and no students were hurt.
A crew of four from the Army National Guard and an Army lieutenant assigned to the school's ROTC unit were the only ones aboard the Black Hawk, Texas A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson said.
Three men were in critical condition at College Station Medical Center, spokeswoman Melissa Purl said.
Another crash victim was at St. Joseph Regional Health Center in Bryan, a spokesman said. That person's condition wasn't immediately known.
Officials did not release the names of the dead and injured.
Witnesses told the Bryan-College Station Eagle they saw five Black Hawk helicopters taking off and landing throughout the day.
Scott Walker said one of two helicopters he watched lift off seemed to lose control and start spinning, Walker said.
"All of a sudden he dropped straight back down into the ground," Walker told the newspaper.
The helicopter, along with 190 cadets in the university's Corps of Cadets, the school's own officer training unit, were participating in the ROTC Winter Field Training Exercises.

1 killed, 4 hurt in Black Hawk crash at Texas A&M - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090112/ap_on_re_us/helicopter_crash)

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/photoessay_6257_images/0112091735_M_copter_450.jpg

TheMonk
17th Jan 2009, 20:26
I copied and pasted this from the Rotary Forum.

"Blackhawk down in College Station, Texas.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/0...hawk-down.html

Read post be Stacie Fowler at bottom of news story.

How about it Mozilla?

What happened?

Black Hawk Helicopter Wreckage to Be Moved to Austin (http://www.kbtx.com/news/headlines/37721399.html)

http://www.kbtx.com/news/headlines/37460119.html"

ramen noodles
17th Jan 2009, 21:47
The local ABC affiliate showed a photo sequence of the last seconds (from perhaps 100 feet on down) and the TR is clearly frozen and not turning.
A guess, TR drive failure and a high altitude engine cut by the crew, followed by a very hard landing.

Here is the ABC News sequence, click on the box below to select the report titled "Deadly Crash Caught on Camera"

ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3428175)

lelebebbel
17th Jan 2009, 22:07
How can you tell that the TR was not turning? The images were made at a fast shutter speed (no motion blur on the MR blades), and the TR blades do change their angle between the pictures, so it looks to me as if the TR was turning, although there is no way to tell how fast.

The fuselage appears to be spinning to the left as it goes down, and the UH60 has a counterclockwise rotor system, so if anything, this looks like sudden a loss of power to the main rotor, not tail rotor.

ramen noodles
17th Jan 2009, 22:34
Oh here we go.

Yes, at 1,000 rpm, it is possible that the shutter repeatedly caught the SAME rotor blade in the SAME position each time it came around (it is clearly frozen in the last two frames). If you believe that, I have a very nice bridge I want to sell you, it spans the Thames river and can be bought cheap.

Regarding your confusion about the fuselage rotation, once the throttle is cut and there is no torque, a US helicopter will have the fuselage turn slowly with the rotor, due to the slight torque conveyed by the transmission thrust bearings. That is why one sometimes needs right pedal on touchdown with a full auto, and what a left crosswind is worse in autorotations..

lelebebbel
17th Jan 2009, 23:24
the still photo sequence is here:
Black Hawk crashes on A&M campus, 1 dead, 4 injured | Bryan/College Station, Texas - The Eagle (http://www.theeagle.com/local/Blackhawk-crashes-on-A-M-campus--1-dead--4-injured)

the fuselage turned between 180 and 270 degrees left during its very short and fast descent. This is way more than "slowly rotating" because of transmission drag, especially if you consider that it would have spun very hard to the right at first after a TR failure in an OGE climb.
My guess is still sudden loss of power, spin caused by TR thrust due to sudden loss of MR torque. I'm done speculating though, let's wait for an official probable cause report.

206Fan
18th Jan 2009, 18:16
Photographer describes helicopter crash on A&M campus (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/photos/01/011809crash.html)