To: Reg C Elley and Roundwego
The two pilots that found themselves in the fog had absolutely no idea how far they were from the walls of the canyon. This was I believe was a compelling reason to hover. Why they didn’t just pull collective and rise vertically above the fog I don’t know and obviously it didn’t cross the minds of the two pilots. The other pilots were in VFR conditions and they knew were they were relative to the canyon walls. I believe if these pilot were instrument rated they would have enough presence of mind to go up. These pilots my have been junior warrant officers with minimum time in this helicopter let alone any other helicopter I can’t say. But as I indicated previously it is recorded in Army records.
Regarding the ASE installation on H-34s this didn't happen until much later so the pilots were controlling by hand.
[ 05 December 2001: Message edited by: Lu Zuckerman ]