Blackwater 61 crash - voice recorder transcript
Transcript: The last flight of Blackwater 61
CASA 212 twin-engine turboprop airplane.
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 26, 2006
This is a portion of the transcript from the cockpit voice recorder taken from a CASA 212 twin-engine turboprop airplane flown by Presidential Airways Inc., Blackwater USA’s aviation affiliate. The plane – Blackwater 61 – took off from Bagram, Afghanistan, on Nov. 27, 2004, carrying a three-man civilian crew and three U.S. soldiers. The voices are those of Noel English, the captain; Loren Hammer, the first officer; and Melvin Rowe, the flight mechanic. Families of the soldiers are suing Presidential Airways.
Source: National Transportation Safety Board
English: I hope I’m goin’ in the right valley.
Hammer: That one or this one?
English: I’m just gonna go up this one. … We’ll just see where this leads. … Normally we’d have time to, on a short day like this, we’d have time to play a little bit, do some explorin’, but with these winds comin’ up I want to (expletive) get there as fast as we can. …
Rowe: I don’t see anythin’ over about 13-three is the highest peak in the whole route, I think. …
English: Yeah, so we’ll be able to pick our way around it. … Yeah, with this good visibility, (expletive) it’s as easy as pie. You run into somethin’ big, you just parallel it until you find a way through. … Cool up in here.
Hammer: Yeah, this is fun.
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English: We’re not supposed to be havin’ fun, though. … It’s supposed to be all work. We can’t enjoy any of it.
English: Exactly.
Hammer: ’Cause we’re getting paid too much to be havin’ fun.
English: You’re God (expletive) right. …
Rowe: I don’t know what we’re gonna see. We don’t normally go this route. …
English: All we want is to avoid seeing rock at 12 o’clock. … Ah, yeah, look at this. I swear to God, they wouldn’t pay me if they knew how much fun this was. …
Hammer: Well, this, ah, row of mountains off to our left – I mean, it doesn’t get much lower than about 14,000 the whole length of it, at least not till the edge of my map.
English: OK. Well, let’s kind of look and see if we’ve got anywhere we can pick our way through. … Yeah, if we have to go to 14 for just a second it won’t be too bad. …
Hammer: Boy, it’s a good thing we’re not too heavy today, I guess. …
English: Come on, baby, come on, baby, you can make it.
Rowe: OK, you guys are gonna make this, right?
English: Yeah, I’m hopin’. …
(Stall warning tone; single beep.)
Rowe: Got a way out?
English: Yeah. We, we can do a 180 up in here. …
Hammer: Yeah, let’s turn around.
English: Yeah, drop a quarter flaps.
Rowe: Yeah, you need to, ah, make a decision.
(Sound of heavy breathing starts.)
English: God (expletive.)
Rowe: Hundred, 90 knots – call off his airspeed for him.
(Stall warning tone; continues until end.)
English: Ah, (expletive).
Rowe: Call it off. Help him out. Call off his airspeed for him.
Hammer: You got 95; 95.
English: Oh, God. Oh, (expletive).
Rowe: We’re goin’ down.
Unidentified voice: God.
Unidentified voice: God.
The recording ends as the plane hits a mountain, killing all six occupants