Tschaika
Space Cadet
13 Soldaten (drei Leicht verletzte) überstanden am Samstag (2005-10-22) einen Absturz (Mißglückter Landeanflug) ihres UH-60 in er afghanischen Provinz Oruzgan.
"Chopper crashes in Afghanistan; 13 soldiers escape serious injury
Black Hawk flips over when its tail rotor hits the ground during a landing attempt
By Sean D. Naylor
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Thirteen soldiers, including two battalion commanders, had a lucky escape Saturday morning when they survived a crash that destroyed their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during a combat operation in Oruzgan province.
No one was killed and only three soldiers were hurt, none seriously, when the command-and-control helicopter crashed during an attempted landing. The aircraft, part of Task Force Storm, was supporting a special operations mission to clear Taliban fighters from several remote villages.
Aboard were Lt. Col. Donald Bolduc, commander of 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, and Task Force Storm commander Lt. Col. Bob Werthman, the right-seat pilot. The other soldiers were the left-seat pilot, the two door gunners, a seven-man reconnaissance element from a Special Forces A-team and Bolduc's command sergeant major. The cause of the crash is under investigation, said Sgt. Maj. Keith Butler, spokesman for Combined Joint Special Forces Task Force -- Afghanistan.
The sun had just come up in the mountainous region when the Black Hawk approached its landing zone in what Bolduc described as "very rocky, very uneven terrain." The pilots, who had just removed their night-vision goggles, "did all the right things flying in," he added, including using evasive maneuvers to avoid any ground fire. But things went wrong as the helicopter was about to land.
"The last thing I heard was the pilots saying, 'Oh, we're going in too hard,' " Bolduc said, adding that he was not aware of any enemy fire. "The tail rotor hit the ground, flipping the aircraft over."
The helicopter skidded across the ground. When it came to rest, Bolduc said, "we were all upside down."
Bolduc, who was monitoring the operation over headphones that made it impossible to wear his helmet, suffered a mild concussion. "The sergeant major popped my harness and pulled me out of the aircraft."
The two other wounded soldiers were the Special Forces element's team leader, who had cuts on his face, and its medic, with cracked ribs and a broken arm.
The unhurt Special Forces soldiers took care of the casualties and marked their location with smoke so a CH-47 Chinook could pick them up about 25 minutes later."
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051023/NEWS06/510230496/1012/NEWS06
"Chopper crashes in Afghanistan; 13 soldiers escape serious injury
Black Hawk flips over when its tail rotor hits the ground during a landing attempt
By Sean D. Naylor
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Thirteen soldiers, including two battalion commanders, had a lucky escape Saturday morning when they survived a crash that destroyed their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during a combat operation in Oruzgan province.
No one was killed and only three soldiers were hurt, none seriously, when the command-and-control helicopter crashed during an attempted landing. The aircraft, part of Task Force Storm, was supporting a special operations mission to clear Taliban fighters from several remote villages.
Aboard were Lt. Col. Donald Bolduc, commander of 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, and Task Force Storm commander Lt. Col. Bob Werthman, the right-seat pilot. The other soldiers were the left-seat pilot, the two door gunners, a seven-man reconnaissance element from a Special Forces A-team and Bolduc's command sergeant major. The cause of the crash is under investigation, said Sgt. Maj. Keith Butler, spokesman for Combined Joint Special Forces Task Force -- Afghanistan.
The sun had just come up in the mountainous region when the Black Hawk approached its landing zone in what Bolduc described as "very rocky, very uneven terrain." The pilots, who had just removed their night-vision goggles, "did all the right things flying in," he added, including using evasive maneuvers to avoid any ground fire. But things went wrong as the helicopter was about to land.
"The last thing I heard was the pilots saying, 'Oh, we're going in too hard,' " Bolduc said, adding that he was not aware of any enemy fire. "The tail rotor hit the ground, flipping the aircraft over."
The helicopter skidded across the ground. When it came to rest, Bolduc said, "we were all upside down."
Bolduc, who was monitoring the operation over headphones that made it impossible to wear his helmet, suffered a mild concussion. "The sergeant major popped my harness and pulled me out of the aircraft."
The two other wounded soldiers were the Special Forces element's team leader, who had cuts on his face, and its medic, with cracked ribs and a broken arm.
The unhurt Special Forces soldiers took care of the casualties and marked their location with smoke so a CH-47 Chinook could pick them up about 25 minutes later."
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051023/NEWS06/510230496/1012/NEWS06