Human Error Cited in Israeli Crash Probe

Initial findings of an inquiry into the helicopter collision that killed 73 servicemen near Israel’s northern border earlier this month stop short of determining the cause of the crash but point to human errors that may have played a role, according to a report released Friday.

The two transport helicopters collided in heavy rain and fog Feb. 4 over the upper Galilee community of Shaar Yeshuv as they ferried soldiers to Israeli outposts in southern Lebanon. All on board were killed.

In the preliminary report, a special commission headed by David Ivri, a former air force commander, said it found shortcomings in planning and flight procedures that may have played a role in the accident, Israel’s worst military air disaster.

The report, presented by Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordecai and other military chiefs in a news conference carried live on Israeli radio and television, ruled out weather as a possible cause of the accident. It also said the arteriosclerosis discovered during an autopsy of one of the pilots probably was not a factor in the crash.

The commission, appointed by Mordecai, said that neither pilot was told who was to be in the lead of the two-helicopter formation and that neither had the experience or qualifications to be the leader.

In addition, there were no clear instructions on when the pilots were to extinguish their lights when crossing into Lebanon, the report said. Israeli helicopter pilots ferrying troops into Lebanon at night routinely switch off their lights to try to avoid detection by Lebanese guerrillas opposed to the Israeli occupation of the self-declared “security zone.”

The commission also criticized the slipshod procedures used to record who was boarding the two Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters that night, and it questioned whether anyone was actually keeping track of which soldiers and which weapons were taken aboard.

Still, “we cannot yet determine the cause for this collision,” the report said. The commission is scheduled to complete its investigation in a month.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, interviewed by Israel Radio while in Washington, said he hopes that the interim report will help prevent such disasters.

The panel made several recommendations for changes, among them that helicopters transporting troops to Lebanon at night fly separately in order to reduce the risk of accidents and that a formation leader be designated when two or more helicopters must fly together. The practice of ferrying troops by air was already an attempt to increase safety by avoiding roadside bombs.

Maj. Gen. Eitan Ben-Eliyahu, the commander of the air force, said that he accepted the commission’s recommendations and that flights can be made safer even as the investigators complete their task.

“We completely adopt these recommendations,” he said. “They will allow us to continue flying as safely as possible even while the final findings are being sought.”

But Yoram Alper, the father of one of the soldiers killed in the accident, reacted angrily to the report. “Is it possible that people get on aircraft in such conditions? That nothing is checked, nothing is coordinated? I do not understand,” Alper told Israel Radio. “Why do 73 people have to die before someone decides that it is necessary to perform these coordinations?”

An outside commission is relatively unusual here and apparently came about because of the magnitude of the disaster. The army generally investigates its own accidents, a practice that has proven increasingly controversial with the Israeli public.