Black Hawk Crash in Texas Kills 7 Soldiers

An Army general and six other soldiers were killed Monday when the Army Black Hawk helicopter ferrying them across central Texas crashed after striking a wire used to stabilize a television broadcast tower, military and law enforcement officials said.

“The site is unbelievable,” said McLennan County Justice of the Peace Raymond N. Britton, one of the first officials to reach the wreckage. “It just disintegrated. It looks like there is nothing left.”

There were no survivors.

The Army had not released the soldiers’ identities by Monday evening but a military official told Associated Press that Brig. Gen. Charles B. Allen was among those killed. Allen was an assistant division commander of the 4th Infantry Division where the soldiers were assigned.

The UH-60 Black Hawk crashed about 6:45 a.m. in an oat field near Moody after lifting off from Ft. Hood, said Cecil Green, a spokesman for the Army base. The field is 25 miles southwest of Waco and 30 miles northeast of Ft. Hood.

The helicopter was en route to the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, a city about 300 miles northeast of Ft. Hood that straddles the Texas-Arkansas line. The soldiers had been assigned to check on equipment that was used in combat in Iraq and was undergoing maintenance at the depot, said Maj. Matt Garner, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division.

The helicopter struck a wire connected to a 1,700-foot tower that belonged to the Waco-Temple-Killeen television station KXXV, said station General Manager Jerry Pursley. Investigators said they believed that a recent storm knocked out warning lights on the tower.

The wire ripped off at least two of the helicopter’s rotors, investigators said.

“Our thoughts are with the crew members and their families,” Pursley said. “We’re just praying for them.”

Witnesses told local law enforcement authorities that the helicopter appeared to be flying very low before the crash, Britton said.

A dense layer of fog covered the region Monday morning. Britton said investigators believed the helicopter was attempting to stay below the cloud “ceiling,” which was less than 500 feet above the ground. He said the fog was so thick that he could not see the top half of the television tower when he arrived at the crash site.

Ft. Hood is the largest active-duty armored base in the U.S. military, the only post large enough to support two full armored divisions -- the 4th Infantry and the 1st Cavalry. The base has sent thousands of its soldiers to Iraq; more than 125 of its soldiers have been killed there.

The Army adopted the Black Hawk as its primary troop transport helicopter in 1979, replacing the UH-1 Huey that became an enduring icon of the Vietnam War.

The Black Hawk is built by the Stratford, Conn.-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a division of United Technologies Corp. The helicopter is typically crewed by four people and is designed to carry 11 soldiers into combat.