Pilot who wrecked Black Hawk admits he was showing off

Associated Press ^ | May. 05, 2005 | JAYMES SONG

[a6intruder]

"There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots."

Well known Naval Aviation saying.

[ArmyTeach]

It's a true fact(:>) that young men (and women) in the military are there partially because it is their nature to live life close to the edge. That's where older and wiser minds need to prevail...This W3 should have countered with something to the effect that he enjoys a rush as much as anyone, but it's not in the game plan...

[righttackle44]

Guy I worked with had been a crew chief for a helicopter crew in Vietnam. They got shot down near the Ho Chi Mihn trail. The pilot was there for no reason except to take pictures to impress his girlfriend.

Fortunately, crews on a returning mission saw them take fire and heard their mayday.

Guys were rescued. But that pilot got his butt kicked real good by a whole lot of people including investigating officers writing official reprimands and the participants in a night time soap party.

[BookaT]

Whole lot af ArmChair quarterbacking going on here.

Do you think there are pilots who stick strictly in the guidlines all the time? Now having asked that, if you do think there are pilots like that then, are they among the best pilots? I am not saying there aren't lesser levels of hot dogging that could have been more approriate. But you fight as you train and if you are training always to be super-safe then you may be erroring on the side of caution.

This guy was on the other side of the perfect balance.

Yeah he may not be flying for the US Military again...in uniform. KBR need pilots

[eastforker]

In the article"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. " It could also be argued that the demonstration was unnecessary.

[Pukin Dog]

The reason that proper procedures are stressed in training, is that $hit happens, and you need to know how to avoid it. You cannot always depend on others to do their job. Don't blame it on the wheel chock, because a wheel chock cant kill anyone of its own volition.

When you are at the controls, and in charge of other people's lives, you don't break the rules to 'show off'. Every military pilot knows this. There is the famous story of a kid in Navy Flight training that was considered to be the best flier anyone had ever seen. Everyone was sure this kid was going to be the best fighter pilot that the Navy ever produced. On his last training flight, the kid performed an unauthorized barrel roll.

His class standing was dropped from 1st to last in the section, and he never saw the inside of a fighter jet, and left the military at his first opportunity. You don't screw around with the hardware. You can die and take a lot of folks with you. No excuses.

[real saxophonist]

Pilot pleads guilty in Bahamas Black Hawk crash

Other pilot's court-martial begins next week.

By Noelle Phillips

Savannah Morning News

FORT STEWART -- Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Riddell wants to accept responsibility for a July 6 helicopter crash in the Bahamas that killed his wife and the wife of another pilot.

Friday afternoon, Riddell told a military judge that he is guilty of wrongful violation of a military order for allowing his wife, Rebecca Riddell, and Pam Guido, wife of Chief Warrant Officer David Guido, on a maintenance test flight. Military rules rarely allow spouses on helicopters, and they strictly limit passengers and crew during test flights to check mechanical repairs.

"I did not seek any authorization to have the wives on board the aircraft," Riddell said.

Riddell also pleaded guilty to willful dereliction of duty. The combined charges will carry a maximum of two years in prison, dismissal from the Army and forfeiture of military pay and benefits. Col. Kenneth Pangburn, an Army judge hearing the case, said he will roll the two pleas into one charge.

However, Army prosecutor Capt. C.B. Richardson told Pangburn that he intends to move forward on a court-martial for those charges and four others filed against Riddell.

During a short explanation of his guilty plea, Riddell told Pangburn that he and Chief Warrant Officer David Guido were authorized by their commander to take a Black Hawk helicopter on a maintenance test flight.

"That's all we were briefed for and we did allow the wives on board the aircraft," Riddell said.

The pilots and Sgt. William Westgate, an avionics repairman, finished the maintenance checks on the Black Hawk before landing on an abandoned airstrip to pick up the wives.

The wives' flight lasted about 15 minutes, and the Black Hawk crashed as the pilots returned to the abandoned runway.

Riddell's plea came after a series of motions hearings on the charges against him and Guido. Most of the defense attorneys' motions asked Pangburn to drop a number of charges.

The attorneys think the prosecutors stacked charges that essentially make the same accusations, said Doug Andrews, Riddell's attorney.

"The gravity of the offense is they found the wives on board," Andrews said. "How many times can you say it?"

Pangburn denied most of the motions or deferred them until he hears evidence presented during the pilots' courts-martial. Guido's court-martial begins Wednesday in the Fort Stewart courtroom. He is charged with conspiracy, wrongful appropriation of a military aircraft, making a false official statement, dereliction of duty, violation of an order and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Riddell is charged with conspiracy, misappropriation of a military aircraft, making a false official statement and conduct unbecoming an officer along with the charges he already pleaded guilty to. His court-martial is scheduled for June 29.

When a soldier faces a court-martial, he decides if he wants the case tried before a judge or a jury of other soldiers who are the same rank or higher. Both pilots chose to have Pangburn, the judge, decide the outcome.

Riddell declined comment on his guilty plea Friday after the hearing.

However, Andrews said his client had been wanting to make the step for a while.

"He wanted to simply accept responsibility for what he did, which was allow the wives to have the helicopter ride they wanted," Andrews said.

The Black Hawk crash background

Chief Warrant Officers David Guido and Daniel Riddell were stationed in Great Exuma, Bahamas, last year to participate in a mission with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency called Operation Bahamas and Turks. The pilots' wives, Pam Guido and Rebecca Riddell, had traveled to the Bahamas with their children to visit the soldiers. The pilots belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield.

On July 6, Guido, Riddell and Sgt. William Westgate took a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on a maintenance test flight to check repairs made earlier that day. The crew checked the repairs and then the pilots landed the Black Hawk on an abandoned runway to pick up the wives. After a short flight, the helicopter crashed as they returned to the runway. Pam Guido and Rebecca Riddell were killed, and the three soldiers were injured.

An Army investigation into the accident cited pilot error as the cause. However, an Army officer dismissed charges supporting that cause after a legal hearing in March.

Guido's court-martial on five charges related to the accident begins Thursday in the Fort Stewart courtroom. Riddell's court-martial is scheduled June 29. The case against Westgate has been delayed because of injuries he suffered in the crash.

http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/060599/LOCblackhawk.html

[eastforker]

I agree with you to a certain extent but the heroes of tomorrow are also the risk takers of today.

[Pukin Dog]

Do you think there are pilots who stick strictly in the guidlines all the time? Now having asked that, if you do think there are pilots like that then, are they among the best pilots?

I take exception to the "armchair quarterbacking" bit, but anyway; there is a difference between 'flier' and 'pilot'. Often the very best 'fliers' make terrible 'pilots'. The best pilots are the SAFE pilots. The best fliers rarely become leaders in the Military because they don't like to follow the rules, and have a hard time training others to do so.

The rules are there for a reason, and to be a good pilot, one must follow them. It is a misconception to assume that 'fighting as you train' means being unsafe; it does not.

Fighting as you train, means to train under near-actual conditions, where trust is paramount. You have to know that the other guy is going to do his job, while you do yours. There is no 'perfect balance', that is TopGun(the movie) crap. Safety is always #1. You cant do crap for your country with your multi-million dollar training , if you die.

[shellshocked]

"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. "


Showing off is always bad ju-ju, but a wheel chock in the controls? Man, that's just plain voo-doo!

[Pukin Dog]

Here is what happened to a really great flier, who was not so great a pilot, who was trying to show off for his mom and dad one day. Too bad they got to watch him die in spectacular fashion. You see, Stacy wanted to show his folks what the Tomcat could do, so he thought he would just put on a little airshow for their amusement.

F-14 crashes into neighborhood, kills five

January 29, 1996
Web posted at: 8:45 p.m. EST

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A Navy F-14 fighter jet crashed into a residential neighborhood moments after takeoff Monday, exploding into flames and killing at least five people.

Police and the mayor's office said those killed were the two crew members and three people on the ground. At least three homes were engulfed in flames.

The plane took off on a training mission from Nashville International Airport shortly before 10 a.m. It crashed moments later about 2.5 miles from the runway which is shared by the Tennessee Air National Guard.

"It took off, went straight up and straight down," said Martha Bradley, a spokeswoman for the airport. Fire Department Lt. Wayne Renardson said it exploded into a "huge ball of flame."

Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen told reporters at the scene that emergency workers recovered the bodies of the two-man crew. The Navy identified the pilot as Lt. Cmdr. John Stacy Bates, 33, of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The radar intercept officer was identified as Lt. Graham Alden Higgins, 28, of Dover-Foxcroft, Maine.

Two of the people killed on the ground were identified as Elmer Newsom, 66, and his wife Ada, 63 who were in one of the homes destroyed by fire. Another unidentified man was found dead in the Newsom's home.

The bodies were burned beyond recognition according to firefighter James Dean. "One guy was just sitting in his couch. He never had a chance," Dean said.

Local television coverage showed three homes on fire 30 minutes after the plane went down. A plume of black smoke could be seen for miles.

Several people witnessed the plane crash.

Don Isert, who was driving near the airport, said, "It was moving so fast I couldn't even tell what shape it was, and then this huge fireball erupted and the heat came through the glass of my car."

Tammy Burgess, who was driving to a restaurant at the time of the crash, said she saw the plane flying low over homes.

"I saw the plane go down so fast," she said. "In the blink of an eye, it exploded. It was terrible." (More from witness - 260K AIFF sound or 260K WAV sound)

Witnesses in the Luna Heights subdivision told of seeing the plane crash into the roof of a home. They said some houses were demolished.

"It just tore the house into shreds," said witness Rick Seele. "There's jet parts all over the place."

In Washington, Navy officials confirmed the plane was an F-14 Navy Tomcat jet, a supersonic, twin-engine fighter, based at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. It had flown into Nashville Sunday to refuel. The F-14 Tomcat is designed to attack enemy aircraft in all weather conditions and at night.

[stinkerpot65]

It's getting to the point where I no one is going to want to serve in the military. One mistake and they put you in prison.

[tophat9000]

Kinda sounds like it was the crew that was negligent. There shouldn't be anything left unsecured in the cabin.If he had had to do that maneuver during combat the outcome would have been the same but no one would have blamed the pilot. It is the crews responsibility to secure the cabin.

Exactly even if you not in combat a so called unnecessary maneuver may become a necessary maneuver an any moment to to some situation or emergency

Military pilots in combat aircraft are expected to be able maneuver there craft to the edge of there performance

The pilot may have been showboating this time but lets say became a necessary maneuver... the unstowed chock would still be the cause (interestingly was the flight even necessary...it was a show for a general)...

[cynicom]

Secure everything??? You must be kidding.

[eastforker]

If I remember this story correctly the pilot had permission for the rapid ascent take off or am I confusing it with another article.

[taxcontrol]

F-around, F-around, soon you wont be around.


I had to tell that to my troops all the time. But you would think that a WO would know that.

[Servant of the 9]

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.

The whole military pilot culture urges people to show off. If you are really hot you get to join the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels or some other demonstration unit and become a professional showoff.

It isn't quite 'hold muh beer' but it is 'hold muh brain'

SO9

[cynicom]

A few years ago, a B-52 crew bought the farm because the pilot was showing off. Happens all the time. Jail this clown.

[Pukin Dog]

If you are really hot you get to join the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels

No, no, no, dude.

The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds don't do anything that any fleet pilot cant do. The attributes that get people into a demo squad are always about attitude, consistency, personality and only then is it about ability.

Demo pilots are ambassadors and recruiters, and potential members are evaluated on how well they can motivate, and what kind of image they put forward. These are super-squared away individuals who never, never consider bending the rules.

If you could not fly, they would never put you in a fighter in the first place.

[Pukin Dog]

He had permission, but he should have asked his engines for their permission too. Older Tomcats engines did not like to be treated that way, and would let you know about it.