An Army report on the crash of a Tennessee Army National Guard UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter near Huntsville that killed two National Guardsmen says the craft flew out of a cloud layer in an “unrecoverable flight attitude” and the crew could not recover in time to avoid the ground.
The Redstone Rocket, a weekly newspaper covering the base, reported today on the releasable portions of the Army safety investigation report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The newspaper said certain points relating to military accidents are “closely protected and exempt from disclosure” under provisions of the public information law. In this case, the cause of the accidental crash and reasons for that conclusion were not released.
The helicopter crashed Feb. 15 while flying near Huntsville on a training mission that started at 5:30 a.m. with pre-flight checkups at Joint Base Berry Field in Nashville, Tenn. and included a stop at the Enterprise, Ala., airport. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Daniel Wadham of Joelton, Tenn., and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Danny Randolph of Murfreesboro, Tenn., were on board and died in the crash.
After a successful fueling at the Huntsville International Airport and stop in Enterprise, the crew on its return trip reported being 50 miles south of Huntsville International Airport and was OK'd for landing to refuel at the airport, the Rocket story says. During its descent,…
