2 Blackhawks down in Utah, no injuries
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2 Blackhawks down in Utah, no injuries
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A protracted hover before landing in severe blowing snow is dangerous enough. Landing two in close formation in white out conditions really isn’t a good idea.
Maybe they can find room in their budget for a little training from a civilian heli-ski operator. Video had "bad idea, poorly executed" vibe from the first frame, ending with the inevitable "dang" sound of a shortened blade spinning down.
Indeed - my first thought looking at the video before things got messy. Any idea what they were trying to accomplish ?
Any idea what they were trying to accomplish ?
Reminiscent of the German Police 155/332 collision a few years ago.
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212, that’s exactly what went through my mind, too. Far safer to go in as singletons, so that the first aircraft on the ground becomes your visual reference, having hopefully cleared a lot of the loose snow.
But then a zero speed, or slow forward speed landing is a far better option if the slope allows it.
But then a zero speed, or slow forward speed landing is a far better option if the slope allows it.
It's one thing to hit brown/ white-out situations at new unfamiliar LZs during a life or death mission or other mitigating circumstance. Unless landing on clean concrete, looking out for the first signs of an impending crap storm is part of our pre-landing mental gymnastics....or should be. My exposure to years of training exercises sometimes make me wonder why the term " training accident" is more common than one would think. Isn't the purpose of training to go slow, evaluate conditions, adjust operation accordingly and communicate before, during and after operations? Then review and discuss what went right, what was unexpected and what could be improved. People talk about pilots having to make split second decisions but this seemed to go on and on and then on some more with no adjustment of plan. I hope these guys go on the circuit and explain how they spent a huge amount of taxpayer cash and that they now see that during a training exercise, discretion is always the better part of valor.
It's possible that back in 2000 more or better training would have prevented an H60 from rolling down the side of Mt. Shasta from 12K due to rapid loss of reference but at least they were trying to get to someone in need. Training is the time for things to go smoothly, not just go out and follow the plan profile and for someone in a command position to say " stop now".
It's possible that back in 2000 more or better training would have prevented an H60 from rolling down the side of Mt. Shasta from 12K due to rapid loss of reference but at least they were trying to get to someone in need. Training is the time for things to go smoothly, not just go out and follow the plan profile and for someone in a command position to say " stop now".
We used to call it to "crash into lz" during heliskiing operations, the description for no hover landing in powder snow to avoid white-out. It looks like they took it to next level
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but also to get a cool photo to show people.
There are PLENTY of other paces to land away from a high density populated ski resort.
I understand that in one of Canada's native languages, "snow" is actually described more specifically with one of seven different words. I'm guessing that several of them are "avoid HIGE" type snow!