Choppers have litany of disasters
By Kevin Meade and AAP
February 13, 2004
MERCIFULLY, they all survived. But yesterday's crash of a Black Hawk helicopter with eight people aboard revived memories of the worst chopper accident in the nation's history.
Eighteen men were killed on June 12, 1996, when two Black Hawk helicopters collided in the night sky west of Townsville. The accident happened during an anti-terrorist training exercise involving 68 men from the army's Fifth Aviation Regiment and the elite Special Air Service Regiment.
They set off that evening in six Black Hawks, but as they neared their target, one of the helicopters veered into another and both plunged to the ground. Fifteen SAS men and three air crewmen died.
A military inquiry found "negligence, deficiencies in the exercise of command and errors of judgment" on the part of a number of officers.
Charges were laid against three soldiers but were eventually dropped.
It was not the first fatal accident in the troubled history of Australia's Black Hawk fleet.
In 1992, two men died when a Black Hawk crashed at the Oakey aviation training centre -- the home base of the chopper in yesterday's crash.
During the federal election campaign in February 1996 -- four months before the Townsville accident -- a Black Hawk nearly crashed while carrying then prime minister Paul Keating and staff in the Daintree rainforest north of Cairns.
The chopper's rotor blades hit trees while landing. An army investigation blamed pilot error.
In 1995, the army revealed that because of a shortage of parts, only three of its 27 frontline Black Hawks were able to fly.
The S-70A Black Hawk first flew in October 1974, and was selected to replace the Vietnam-era Hueys in US service in 1976. The US now operates about 1000 of the type.
Australia initially adopted the maritime version, the S-70B Sea Hawk for navy service, and the Black Hawk was subsequently selected and a tender issued in 1984 worth $500 million.
The first of 39 was delivered in February 1988, with the majority assembled at the Hawker de Havilland plant in Sydney.
They are used as a utility helicopter, carrying troops, cargo or acting as a gunship and are operated by the army's Fifth Aviation Regiment at Townsville and the training school at Oakey.
The Black Hawk carries a crew of two pilots and two crewman-gunners and up to 10 fully equipped soldiers.
From
The Australian
Ah, journalism at its finest. 'Sensational headline that, bl00dy sensational.'
