This was a post from Facebook today. For those of you that don't know. I was a member of the US Navy for 5 years as an aviation structural mechanic attached to HS-7 Dusty Dogs. We flew SH60-F and HH-60H Seahawks. Essentially the Navy's version of the Blackhawk. About the only differences was the configuration of the cabin, the avionics, and the addition of the rescue hoist.
Seven years ago yesterday we lost aircraft 612 during a training exercise in Fallon, NV as part of our workups for our then upcoming deployment. All 5 aircrew members were lost. One of them being our commanding officer. This accident was in no part due to mechanical failure nor human error on any of the aircrews part. The training mission was a simulated CSAR (Combat Search And Rescue), and the bird caught a guy wire from a cell phone tower (which was not on any of the maps) and went straight to the ground. This happened within 15 minutes of the bird taking off from the tarmac. So, as a result they still had approx 5,000 pounds of fuel in the tanks. Couple this with the fact that both turbines were at full operating temperature and the gearboxes casings are magnesium, and with the altitude and speed at which they were flying, there was no chance of even thinking of going into auto-rotate procedures.
I don't know why I am posting this now as this really is abut the most I have talked about it since it happened.
The patch in the image was done up after we returned to Jacksonville, FL in memory of those that fell that horrible evening.
