Posted on 05/06/2005 8:34:53 AM PDT by Dubya
WHEELER ARMY AIR FIELD, Hawaii - A seasoned Army pilot pleaded guilty Thursday to negligent homicide and other charges, admitting that he was showing off when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Afghanistan last year.
The aircraft's crew chief was killed in the Aug. 12 crash, and all 14 others aboard were injured, including the pilot.
At the start of his court-martial, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Darrin R. Rogers pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, failure to carry out a lawful order and destruction of government property. Military attorney Capt. Darwin Strickland entered the pleas on Rogers' behalf.
Before accepting the plea, the judge, Col. Debra Boudreau, asked Rogers whether he was showing off when the crash occurred.
"Yes, ma'am, basically I was trying to impress the guys in the back," Rogers said.
Rogers, 37, was at the controls of the UH-60 tactical transport helicopter and was flying over Chapman Air Field in standby, waiting to demonstrate for a visiting dignitary - Marine Gen. James L. Jones, supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of the U.S. European Command - how to deliver troops quickly to the battlefield. The $6 million Black Hawk plunged to the ground outside Camp Salerno near Khowst and was destroyed.
An earlier Army investigative report described the incident: Marines on board the helicopter twice told the pilot, "Fly hard." The first time he refused, but the second time the response from the cockpit came back: "You asked for it." The pilot then radioed, "Taking room to maneuver."
Rogers testified that he was waiting to begin the demonstration when he had the Black Hawk engage in a move where it ascended rapidly and then descended causing a feeling of weightlessness, or zero gravity.
A wheel chock rose off the floor and drifted into the cockpit, jamming the controls and preventing Rogers from being able to pull out of the dive, he said.
Investigators said Rogers conducted "maneuvers unnecessary for the mission."
Rogers could be discharged from the Army and could face more than five years in prison, although outside legal experts say prison time would be unusual for a case of negligent homicide.
Rogers, a pilot with 11 years experience and about 2,000 flight hours, declined to comment when reached by telephone Wednesday at his home in Mililani, a quiet residential community in central Oahu outside Schofield Barracks, where he is stationed with the 25th Infantry Division (Light). Rogers has been in the Army since 1985.
Galvan's widow, Sonya Galvan of Lubbock, Texas, briefly took the stand and began weeping after looking momentarily in Rogers' direction. She described problems her two children had suffered since their father's death.
The judge ordered a recess after she began to cry uncontrollably.
Before that, Galvan's parents, Blas and Nelda Galvan of Moore, Okla., sobbed as they testified in the sentencing phase of the trial. They said their son wanted to become a pilot. His mother said she was "angry that my son lost his life for no good reason, especially since he trusted Mr. Rogers with his life."
Before the trial, Sonya Galvan told The Associated Press that she hopes the court-martial makes other pilots aware of the consequences of their actions and she believes Rogers should be kicked out of the Army and denied his retirement pay.
"If just for a minute, if Rogers hadn't acted like a pilot and acted more like these were his children on board, this wouldn't have happened," she said. "He has no idea how much my kids are struggling, how this has affected our lives."
She said her two children stayed at home because she thought the trip would be too disturbing for them.
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Associated Press reporter Ted Bridis in Washington contributed to this report.
"Hey, watch this!" - Has killed more soldiers than enemy bullets...
The families will have a little bit of a hard time dealing with this i bet.
This is coming from AP and I personaly think it is BS. Pilots train for combat and the wheel chock being unsecured is the real cause here. I am not a pilot thats for sure but in my army days of riding choppers I was amazed at some of the "stunts" these pilots could do. I would love to read the true transcript as to weather or not the pilot actually stated he was showing off.
And the pilot's responsiblity to ensure that it's done correctly.
""Hey, watch this!" - Has killed more soldiers than enemy bullets..."
I doubt that. Accidents are almost never a case of soldiers showing off. It happens, but don't make it a bigger problem than it is.
Not so fast!
Good point. A wheel chock shouldn't be hitting an instrument panel in an evasive scenario.
The huge majority of military flying accidents are because of this very same attitude. Showing off is something that is hard to avoid among the type of individuals who qualify to fly these aircraft.
I could tell you of many stories where pilots have lost their lives, or millions of dollars worth of tax-payer funded weaponry, just because they wanted to have, or give someone else a thrill.
It is just part of the game.
Tell that to the B-52 crew that died in the pre-show practice. Their pilot had a nasty reputation for showing off, had been reprimanded for it, but never punished for it. Then he winged the jet over, and dropped it into a power substation, killing everyone on board.
Sorry, but that is wrong. Outside of mechanical failure, almost all military flying accidents are due a failure to follow procedure, which is most cases does come down to showing off. It happens more than the military would like you to know.
Now that might be a gross hyperbole, but there is a grain of truth there.
Just in the last few days I saw another helicopter landing on a ship at sea (hard to tell what kind of a ship, since only the landing area shows) coming in way too fast.
The copter teetered on the edge of the deck and somersaulted backwards into the sea. No way to tell how many were aboard or when and where it happened.
It is tough. But at least it wasn't a case of "Hold muh beer" which has caused a lot of Darwinian moments.
I believe the unsecured equipment is the real culprit and not the pilot.
The good thing is that he will never pilot a helicopter again in the U.S. Military.
But Dog, isn't that also a part of training sometimes pushing it to the limits? Had the wheel chock been secured the accident would not have happened correct? One question is if the pilot was proficient to perform this maneuver and if it was a recognized tactical maneuver.
A few years ago at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, a couple of Blackhawk pilots took their wives for an unauthorised ride; They ended up crashing and killing at least one person. I'll look up the story...
"Outside of mechanical failure, almost all military flying accidents are due a failure to follow procedure,"
I was a Vietnam era Crew Chief with 3,500 flying hours.
"Hot-Dog" pilots are a major problem then and now. I think that the personality type that is drawn to being a pilot is the type that is reckless given the opportunity. But since the birth of aviation the reckless are the ones who become pilots.
A quote from a pilot, "Flying is hours of boredom punctuated by seconds of terror." So to spice up the boredom pilots do stupid stuff.
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