Posted on 08/20/2009 12:36:25 PM PDT by RDTF
LEADVILLE, Colorado — Four soldiers died after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training mission on Colorado's second-highest mountain, the Army's Special Operations Command said Thursday.
The helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon near the summit of 14,421-foot Mount Massive.
The Army initially said two were killed, one was injured and one was missing. The missing man was found dead late Wednesday, and the injured man died on the way to the hospital Wednesday, said Lt. Col. John Clearwater, a spokesman for the command at Fort Bragg, N.C.
All were male soldiers from Fort Campbell, Ky., he said. Their names haven't been released.
The crew was training in high-altitude mountainous conditions, "much like the environment they operate in Afghanistan," Clearwater said, adding that he didn't know whether the crew had served there.
The helicopter was assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) at Fort Campbell. Soldiers in the 160th are known as "night stalkers" because they specialize in nighttime operations. The regiment's Web site says the 160th has carried out combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Prayers for their souls and for their loved ones. God Bless our Troops.
May flights of angels sing them to their rest
Your kind words speak for me too, NEMDF!
All I can say is, these troops are currently undergoing formation in the only army better than ours....
The ARMY of GOD.
It crashed right near the top of the 14,421-foot peak, at 13,800 feet.
Just 700 feet short. Dang.
160th “night stalkers” RIP
Bump
I’m so sorry. Misting up.
We’ve had some unsettled weather this week, including a tornado up in the mountains (extremely rare). I can only guess that weather or a mechanical was the cause. Prayers for their families.
Very sad news.
Prayers for them and their families.
Very necessary training though. In Afghanistan, high altitude ops is ops normal. Sad for them and their families, but very necessary.
There will always be training accidents outside of the sim, but you play for keeps in the aviation world and you save far more by accepting the training risks.
An MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed at about 14,200 feet
on the south flank of 14,421- foot Mount Massive about 2 p.m.
Wednesday.
The crash was in the Mount Massive Wilderness Area.
Lake County Search and Rescue personnel responded
with a mobile command unit. Chaffee County Search
and Rescue volunteers were summoned to assist about
4:30 p.m. The crash was reported by U.S. Forest Service
workers in the area.
Two Flight for Life helicopters also responded.Photo by Ann Wibbenmeyer
Now it’s just 200 feet from the summit? Sad, very sad.
One of my favorite flights is to Leadville, the highest paved runway, with Mt Massive is just across the valley. Hop over the other side of the ridge line and there is Aspen.
High altitude flying is not easy as the flight controls and power become sluggish at that altitude. Accidents can easily happen in those conditions.
RIP
Special Ops from Fort Campbell KY Very strange. Sad, Clear air, above the tree line just after noon.
Sheer speculation on my part, but I wonder if the pilots were on oxygen. I’ve been on helicopter up in that area and when the pilots took the craft up above the mountains us troops (without oxygen) were sleeping like babes.
But that would mean poor planning producing pitiful results. My thought too.
Its name comes from its elongated shape: it has five summits, all above 14,000 ft (4,268 m), and a summit ridge over 3 mi (4.8 km) long.
We have US Army helicopters flying upstream over Salida once a week.
Oh, no!
The wings of Eagles........this 101st Vet sends his prayers and deepest regrets to the families of these heroes.
Prayers up!
Update from the The Mountain Mail
I used to have a signed first edition of Durant’s take on his BlackHawk down capture in Somalia, but I gave it to an ex boyfriend for a Christmas present. *sigh*
Thanks. They’ve been closed lipped about cause so far.
What seems odd is most often there are three helicopters
in each group heading north over Salida each week.They seem to fly south on CO-115 from Fort Carson
then follow the Arkansas River up to Leadville.This chopper seemed to have been alone.
Here is more G2:Soldiers' death toll in helicopter crash now 4
Notice Gypsum
Looking at Google Earth, there is a photo of a C-17
on the tarmac at Eagle/Vail airport in Gypsum.Old runway was 3900"
It has one runway 7 & 25
8000" long 150" wide
Colorado Air National Guard base on the north side
Sounds like they’re going to fly the wreckage out?
It shows however the airport is C-17 capableI'm not so sure as the photo was
Uploaded the 2009-02-16 17:02:56
Do you have a link to that photo?
Summit county...high concentration of peaks...some remote areas unless a ski spot
Leadville used to be the highest elevation town in lower 48
Leadville used to be the highest elevation town in lower 48
Leadville and Mount Massive are in Lake County Colorado
whoops...off a bit
Summit is Dillon i reckon
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