{"id":44589,"date":"2021-03-15T21:32:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T21:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/15\/no-need-to-ground-black-hawk-fleet-after-recent-crashes-army-safety-director-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:55:56","slug":"no-need-to-ground-black-hawk-fleet-after-recent-crashes-army-safety-director-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2021\/03\/15\/no-need-to-ground-black-hawk-fleet-after-recent-crashes-army-safety-director-says\/","title":{"rendered":"No need to ground Black Hawk fleet after recent crashes, Army safety director says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Investigators have not found any material problems or common piloting errors linking a series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2021\/02\/09\/spate-of-black-hawk-crew-deaths-prompts-questions-for-pentagon\/\" target=_blank>fatal UH-60 Black Hawk crashes<\/a> over the past year-and-a-half, according to the Army\u2019s safety director, Brig. Gen. Andrew Hilmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The loss of two separate three-person National Guard Black Hawk crews in a matter of weeks sparked concern at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gillibrand.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/Sen.%20Gillibrand%20UH-60%20Letter%20to%20DoD%202.5.21.pdf\" target=_blank>Senate Armed Services Committee<\/a> that a larger pattern of malfunction could be the culprit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the active duty force is included, data shows that there have been five Black Hawk crashes between December 2019 and February 2021, claiming the lives of 16 service members in total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But so far, nothing from those investigations hints at a material issue with the airframe, according to the Army Combat Readiness Center, which looks into catastrophic mishaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt this point, even with those investigations just now finishing up, we have not found anything that warrants grounding of the Black Hawk fleet,\u201d Hilmes said. \u201cEach of those mishaps occurred under unique circumstances and we are looking at different causal factors in each.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past four decades, about 86 percent of Army aviation mishaps have been attributed to human error, which can encompass a wide range of issues, from overreaction during an emergency to complacency on routine flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re always analyzing each and every mishap for trends,\u201d Hilmes added. \u201cIn those five mishaps that we\u2019re talking about, each involving UH-60s, we haven\u2019t seen specific linkages or commonalities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2021\/03\/06\/idaho-guard-black-hawk-crew-lost-sight-in-bleak-weather-prior-to-fatal-crash\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Idaho-Guard-crash_pilots.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Idaho Guard Black Hawk crew lost sight in bleak weather prior to fatal crash<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The crew had only 14 seconds from the time they initiated the procedure to switch to instruments to the time the aircraft impacted the ground.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Preliminary results from the most recent crash \u2014 an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2021\/03\/06\/idaho-guard-black-hawk-crew-lost-sight-in-bleak-weather-prior-to-fatal-crash\/\" target=_blank>Idaho Guard Black Hawk that went down near Boise<\/a> \u2014 stated that rapidly deteriorating weather was a significant factor in the incident. But the primary cause was the crew\u2019s inability to complete an emergency shift to instrument flight before impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey only had 14 seconds from the time the crew initiated [instrument] procedures to the time the aircraft impacted the ground,\u201d Col. Chris Burt, the Idaho Army National Guard\u2019s state aviation officer, said during a recent press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe most effective way to survive [such] an emergency is simply to not enter that environment in the first place,\u201d Burt added. \u201cHowever, this is not always possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Idaho mishap took place mere weeks after a New York Guard Black Hawk crashed Jan. 20 in a farmer\u2019s field south of Rochester, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2021\/01\/22\/three-man-crew-lost-in-guard-helicopter-crash-were-experienced-pilots\/\">killing three experienced pilots<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New York Guard spokesman Col. Richard Goldenberg declined to provide any details about the results of that investigation, as the Idaho Guard had done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes, mechanical failures are paired with human error, as was the case when a Minnesota Guard Black Hawk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2020\/08\/05\/mechanical-failure-human-error-cited-in-minnesota-guard-helicopter-crash\/\">crashed near St. Cloud<\/a> in December 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An investigation determined that the Minnesota mishap, which also killed three crewmembers, was caused by an improperly installed hydro-mechanical unit. The investigation summary stated that the maintenance test pilot failed to respond to the situation, and the pilot at the controls failed to execute an autorotative descent and landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Black Hawk is a dual-engine aircraft, so it\u2019s got redundancy, and if one of the engines were to go out, then there are procedures in place so you can fly that aircraft rather well on one engine,\u201d Hilmes said. \u201cWhile there might be a material failure that occurs in flight, there are procedures in place to overcome that failure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emergency procedures have been in the Army\u2019s sights recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe did see a trend in the latter half of 2019, where we had several mishaps where the crew performance of emergency procedures was inadequate,\u201d Hilmes noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, the Army\u2019s Aviation Center of Excellence released revised emergency procedure methodology to reduce pilots\u2019 reaction time during emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2020\/12\/23\/soldiers-really-need-to-wear-seat-belts-year-end-analysis-shows\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635900068484125241-2366407jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Soldiers really need to wear seat-belts, year-end analysis shows<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">\u201cWe actually have not lost a soldier in a rollover accident since March 2018 who had a serviceable restraint available to them,\u201d the Army safety director said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s less memorization required in terms of rattling off a checklist,\u201d Hilmes explained. \u201cLess focus on rote memorization and more attention paid to flying the aircraft. Then troubleshooting once you ensure you can continue to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Class A aviation mishaps, the Army\u2019s most catastrophic category, fell from 12 in fiscal 2019 to just six in 2020, according to data sets provided to Army Times. And although coronavirus restrictions limited some training last year, the force still hit 90 percent of the flying hours that were cataloged in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, seven soldiers were killed in aviation mishaps during fiscal 2020, compared to just two the year prior. That\u2019s because more of 2020\u2032s Class A mishaps involved variations of the UH-60 Black Hawk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a troop-carrying aircraft. Sometimes there\u2019s greater potential that you might have more more soldiers on board,\u201d Hilmes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Black Hawks make up about two-thirds of the total Army aviation fleet. That means they fly in greater numbers and work more total hours than the AH-64 Apache or CH-47 Chinook fleets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrom fiscal year \u201916 to fiscal year \u201920, the Black Hawk flew 1 million more hours than the rest of the fleet combined,\u201d Hilmes added. \u201cSo, it\u2019s out there a lot more than the other aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the higher number of flight hours, Hilmes noted, the Black Hawk still has a lower mishap rate than the Chinook and Apache. The Guard also has a lower Class A mishap rate than both the Reserve and active duty Army, data sheets provided to Army Times showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Army National Guard is not seeing an increased number of mishaps. Tragically, these two events were just close together in time,\u201d Hilmes said of the New York and Idaho losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Black Hawk crashes haven\u2019t been confined to the Guard, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two soldiers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment were killed in late August when their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2020\/08\/29\/army-identifies-night-stalkers-killed-in-california-black-hawk-training-crash\/\" target=_blank>aircraft went down<\/a> near San Clemente Island, California. Then in November, five soldiers were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/11\/14\/army-identifies-5-soldiers-killed-in-sinai-uh-60-black-hawk-helicopter-crash\/\" target=_blank>killed during a peacekeeping mission<\/a> in Egypt\u2019s Sinai Peninsula when their Black Hawk went down because of an apparent \u201ctechnical failure,\u201d officials said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both of those investigations are still finishing up, and though Hilmes declined to detail the specifics of those incidents, he maintained that there was nothing found by investigators that warrants the grounding of the Black Hawk fleet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Army safety director said that no commonalities have been found linking five fatal UH-60 Black Hawk crashes over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,14,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3374],"class_list":["post-44589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-land","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NVXUCC3UTJD3HKDLZ6YKQEXN2Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2021\/03\/15\/no-need-to-ground-black-hawk-fleet-after-recent-crashes-army-safety-director-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>No need to ground Black Hawk fleet after recent crashes, Army safety director says - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Army safety director said that no commonalities have been found linking five fatal UH-60 Black Hawk crashes over the past 18 months.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No need to ground Black Hawk fleet after recent crashes, Army safety director says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Army safety director said that no commonalities have been found linking five fatal UH-60 Black Hawk crashes over the past 18 months.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2021\/03\/15\/no-need-to-ground-black-hawk-fleet-after-recent-crashes-army-safety-director-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-15T21:32:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T03:55:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kyle Rempfer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kyle Rempfer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t       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