GeorgeMandes
31st Mar 2009, 03:05
Black Hawk crash remains on Monarch Pass
by Christopher Kolomitz
Mail Managing Editor
With investigators enroute to the crash site, the Alaska Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter will remain on Monarch Pass for the next several days.
The site is secured by a military team ferried to the Monarch Pass summit around 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.
Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters landed at the summit and off-loaded troops and a vehicle, Chaffee County Sheriff Tim Walker, said.
U.S. 50 was closed about 90 minutes and Colorado Department of Transportation workers plowed snow for landing zones, Walker said.
The crashed Black Hawk is 35-40 yards above U.S. 50 between the Monarch Mountain parking lot exit and Old Monarch Pass turnout, officials said.
A portion of the tail rotor is visible from the highway.
Photos taken Friday show all four rotor blades were broken and one blade apparently remained hanging in a tree.
One broken tree trunk appears to have speared the bottom of the aircraft while several others just missed. Tree branches above the crash site are topped or were shaved clean from trunks.
Trees as thick as 12-16 inches were splintered and chopped through, Bill Schuckert, U.S. Forest Service District Ranger in Salida said.
Schuckert and another forest service employee skied to the site to survey damage.
He said the three-person crew was "lucky" to have escaped unharmed because of the proximity of a high tension power line, the highway and the ski area.
The Black Hawk crew was headed to Pocatello, Idaho, from Fort Carson at Colorado Springs after the helicopter underwent routine maintenance.
At crash time it was windy with snow falling and low clouds reported.
Walker said he thought snow and broken trees helped secure the aircraft on the hillside, preventing it from rolling or tumbling to the highway.
Two 100-gallon fuel tanks were jettisoned before the landing and fell, intact, nearby, Schuckert said. It was unclear if there was any possible environmental damage from other leaking fluids.
As for removing the helicopter, Walker said Sunday it wasn't known when it would be - perhaps this week.
He said it would likely involve airlifting the wrecked Black Hawk from the site to the summit where it would be loaded on a trailer.
by Christopher Kolomitz
Mail Managing Editor
With investigators enroute to the crash site, the Alaska Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter will remain on Monarch Pass for the next several days.
The site is secured by a military team ferried to the Monarch Pass summit around 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.
Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters landed at the summit and off-loaded troops and a vehicle, Chaffee County Sheriff Tim Walker, said.
U.S. 50 was closed about 90 minutes and Colorado Department of Transportation workers plowed snow for landing zones, Walker said.
The crashed Black Hawk is 35-40 yards above U.S. 50 between the Monarch Mountain parking lot exit and Old Monarch Pass turnout, officials said.
A portion of the tail rotor is visible from the highway.
Photos taken Friday show all four rotor blades were broken and one blade apparently remained hanging in a tree.
One broken tree trunk appears to have speared the bottom of the aircraft while several others just missed. Tree branches above the crash site are topped or were shaved clean from trunks.
Trees as thick as 12-16 inches were splintered and chopped through, Bill Schuckert, U.S. Forest Service District Ranger in Salida said.
Schuckert and another forest service employee skied to the site to survey damage.
He said the three-person crew was "lucky" to have escaped unharmed because of the proximity of a high tension power line, the highway and the ski area.
The Black Hawk crew was headed to Pocatello, Idaho, from Fort Carson at Colorado Springs after the helicopter underwent routine maintenance.
At crash time it was windy with snow falling and low clouds reported.
Walker said he thought snow and broken trees helped secure the aircraft on the hillside, preventing it from rolling or tumbling to the highway.
Two 100-gallon fuel tanks were jettisoned before the landing and fell, intact, nearby, Schuckert said. It was unclear if there was any possible environmental damage from other leaking fluids.
As for removing the helicopter, Walker said Sunday it wasn't known when it would be - perhaps this week.
He said it would likely involve airlifting the wrecked Black Hawk from the site to the summit where it would be loaded on a trailer.