17 GIs Die as Copters Collide in Kentucky : Army Transport Has a History of Groundings

Two Blackhawk troop transport helicopters collided at 800 feet and burst into flames during a night training mission over the base of the tragedy-scarred 101st Airborne Division, killing all 17 soldiers aboard, the Army said today.

“There were no survivors in the crash,” said Bill Harralson, a spokesman for the famed “Screaming Eagles” paratrooper division, which lost 248 soldiers in a 1985 airplane crash in Newfoundland.

The Blackhawk is one of the military’s newest helicopters, but has been grounded several times. Last summer, officials said that about 40 people had been killed in crashes of the helicopter since 1978.

Flags at Ft. Campbell were put at half-staff to mourn those killed.

Maj. Randy Schoel, another base spokesman, said the UH-60 choppers were traveling at about 90 m.p.h. when they collided and crashed in flames about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday on the Ft. Campbell military reservation near the Tennessee-Kentucky border.

Harralson said the choppers were on a “routine night training” mission.

In Washington, Pentagon Army spokesman Maj. Phil Soucy said there were 10 passengers and four crew members on one helicopter and three crew members on the other.

Investigators on Scene

Wreckage from one of the helicopters landed near a clearing and the other plummeted into a wooded area, igniting a small fire, Schoel said. Authorities said an investigative team from Ft. Rucker, Ala., Army base was on the scene to determine the cause of the crash.

Schoel said helicopters on night missions usually maintain radio contact with the base, but there was no immediate information from the radio operators about any communication they might have had with the pilots.

He described weather conditions at the time of the crash as good. The weather service said skies were overcast with visibility of about seven miles and winds of 10 m.p.h.

The UH-60 Blackhawk is designed to carry 11 fully equipped soldiers plus a crew of three. The craft has a large cabin that enables it to be used without modification for medical evacuation, reconnaissance, command and control purposes, or troop supply.

The Sikorsky-manufactured helicopter is in service with Army, Air Force and Marine units. Soucy said the Army has 846 Blackhawks, including the two that crashed Tuesday.