Army Grounds 640 Helicopters
The Army today grounded all 640 of its Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopters after a crash Tuesday at Ft. Rucker, Ala., which killed the pilot and two passengers.
It is the second grounding in 11 months for the workhorse Blackhawk, made by Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Technologies Corp., and another in a series of mishaps plaguing U.S. military helicopters. The Army only last month lifted an order grounding its fleet of new Apache attack helicopters after accepting McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co.’s assurance that rotor-blade cracks posed no safety threat.
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