An HH-60 Pave Hawk assigned to the 46th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron arrives at the site of a simulated aircraft crash site to provide personnel recovery operations and support for Battlefield Airmen assigned to the 52nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron on the ground assisting role players in an undisclosed location, Iraq, July 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by SSgt Keith James)
By Vivienne Machi |
@VivienneMachi
5 years ago |
10/29/2018

The Air Force has determined the cause of a fatal accident this past March involving a Pave Hawk helicopter in Iraq that killed all on board.

On March 15, an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing under U.S. Central Command struck a galvanized steel cable and crashed near Al Qaim in Anbar Province when it overshot its intended landing zone.

An HH-60 Pave Hawk assigned to the 46th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron arrives at the site of a simulated aircraft crash site to provide personnel recovery operations and support for Battlefield Airmen assigned to the 52nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron on the ground assisting role players in an undisclosed location, Iraq, July 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by SSgt Keith James)
An HH-60 Pave Hawk assigned to the 46th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron arrives at the site of a simulated aircraft crash site to provide personnel recovery operations and support for Battlefield Airmen assigned to the 52nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron on the ground assisting role players in an undisclosed location, Iraq, July 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by SSgt Keith James)

Four flight crew members and three pararescue men were killed in the accident. The helicopter, built by Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] Sikorsky subsidiary and valued at about $49 million, was destroyed on impact, according to an Air Combat Command statement released Oct. 29. No civilian injuries or private property damage was reported.

According to the Accident Investigation Board report released Monday, the pilot misinterpreted aircraft navigation displays, causing the helicopter formation to overfly the targeted destination.

“The mishap occurred during a mission to preposition a helicopter formation to a landing zone closer to the vicinity of ground operations,” the report read.

“As a result, the aircraft descended into an unplanned location, striking a 3/8-inch diameter galvanized steel cable strung horizontally between two 341-foot high towers,” it added. “The cable quickly entangled in the HH-60G’s main rotor assembly resulting in catastrophic damage and an unflyable condition.”

The main cause of the accident was found to be due to the mishap pilot misinterpreting the aircraft navigation displays, the report said. However, the Accident Investigation Board president also found several additional factors contributed to the fatal crash, including a breakdown in communications to detect and report the navigation error. Low illumination conditions meant that night vision goggles were not sufficient to see the cables, which was an additional cause.

The HH-60G Pave Hawk, a variant of the Army’s Black Hawk helicopter, is used for personnel and medical recovery and combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) missions and has been in service since the 1980s. The Air Force in 2014 awarded Sikorsky a $1.6 billion contract for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of a new CSAR helicopter, dubbed the HH-60W. The company is currently building nine aircraft under that contract, with first flight expected by the end of 2018(Defense Daily, Aug. 17).