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Post by Admin on Feb 7, 2006 7:07:55 GMT -6
Military helicopter crashes at Yakima Training Center
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YAKIMA, Wash. -- A military helicopter crashed Monday night on the Yakima Training Center, causing minor injuries to three of the four people on board, an Army spokesman said.
No fatalities were reported, said Joe Hitt, a spokesman for the Army's Fort Lewis.
The helicopter, believed to be a medevac unit's Huey, or UH-1, apparently went down while on a night-vision training flight, but no other details were immediately available, Hitt told the Yakima Herald-Republic.
Emergency crews were dispatched to the call at 7:42 p.m., fire dispatchers said.
Jim Reddick, the training center spokesman, and other officials reached at the base would not provide information about the crash. The Yakima Training Center is part of the Fort Lewis operation.
Hitt said a mishap investigation would begin Tuesday.
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Post by Admin on Feb 7, 2006 18:55:14 GMT -6
Fort Drum soldiers injured in helicopter crash
02/07/06
Four Fort Drum soldiers were injured Tuesday when their medical evacuation helicopter crashed during a night training flight at Yakima Training Center in Washington, according to Fort Drum officials.
The soldiers were part of the U.S. Army Air Ambulance Detachment, which is assigned to Fort Drum under the control of the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade.
The injured soldiers were taken to a local civilian hospital for treatment of minor, non-life threatening injuries.
An investigation will be conducted by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center based at Fort Rucker, Ala.
Damage to the UH-1V helicopter is considered severe.
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Post by Admin on Feb 8, 2006 12:07:47 GMT -6
Helicopter crew 'very, very lucky'
By CHRIS BRISTOL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
The crew of an Army medical helicopter that crashed during a training mission Monday night at the Yakima Training Center was "very, very lucky" to escape with only minor to moderate injuries, a base spokesman said.
Names of the crew members were not released, and reporters were not granted access to the crash site Tuesday. Base spokesman Jim Reddick said one crew member broke his leg and ankle in the crash, but the rest of the crew was being released from the hospital.
The helicopter, a UH-IV medevac unit from Fort Drum, N.Y., lost power and plunged to the ground at 7:33 p.m. Monday during a training mission using night-vision goggles.
Reddick said he did not know the helicopter's altitude when it lost power. He said the copter, a Huey, was high enough that the crew was able to try to restart the engine before the aircraft hit the ground and rolled over one and a half times.
One of the crew members helped the other three out of the wreck and trekked about two-thirds of a mile to a manned control tower, where a call for help was made, Reddick said.
The crew's injuries were not considered
life-threatening. One crew member broke his leg and ankle and another suffered an unspecified puncture wound. Most of the injuries stemmed from "being bounced around pretty well," Reddick said.
The helicopter was a total loss, Reddick added.
The medevac unit is part of the Army Air Ambulance Detachment out of Fort Drum. It came to the 260,000-acre Yakima base last year with a two-year rotation set to end in April 2007.
The four-member crew consists of two pilots, a crew chief and a medic. Their names and hometowns were not released.
The unit is not considered a replacement for the Training Center's now-defunct air rescue program known as MAST, short for Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic. However, the helicopter and its crew are available for civilian rescue operations on a case-by-case basis, Reddick said.
An investigation is being conducted by a team from the Army Combat Readiness Center, based at Fort Rucker, Ala.
Reddick said helicopter crashes at the Training Center are rare but not unheard of. He could not say when the last one occurred.
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