Blackhawk Down

[duf]

Pretty tragic stuff

Blackhawk down in Texas

 

[Rotorboy2]

I'm surprised that, given the details of the area and the weather at that point in time, that operations were continued.

Blackhawks are IFR equipped usually, right?

I can only gather that they were trying to fly VFR.

 

[MagSeal]

another thought to ponder is whether they were on NVG's and whether NVG's are effective in those conditions for spotting wires etc.

 

[helidude]

"30 towers in a 5 mile radius from the crash site"
Holy crap, talk about an accident waiting to happen!!

 

[hungstart]

I don't know much about NVG's but I would assume that they would be used in the dark. The Blackhawk went down at 7:00 am according to the link above. I have tried on a pair once when there was a couple of Griffons parked out on the ramp beside the hanger. They made a starlight only night seem like a overcast day.

 

[MagSeal]

it's still dark in my neck of the woods at 7:30 am, And they had already been in the air for a bit....so it was just an assumption. The sunrise/sunset charts indicate sunrise at around 7 am for that area and in poor weather it'll surely stay darker for longer. It's also an assumption, but you never know when, or where, the military will try and increase limits of use for any of their equipment. It's not unfathomable that somebody may think using NVG's in the clag might be of some use.
I suppose too if the strobe light was working on the tower, would it have mattered? If it was light enough outside, the intensity of the strobe light in the fog would be greatly dimished anyway, and with so many in such a close proximity, depth perception of them could be an issue.

 

[hungstart]

The sunrise is about 7:45 in my neck of the woods, daylight occurs at about 7am. I guess I assumed that it would be light out that far south. O

 

[Sticky]

Sunrise for the Ft. Hood area, according to the charts, was around 6:45. NVG use at 7:00 would be pure speculation on our part since the ambient light at that time may have rendered the goggles somewhat useless or marginal - depending on the generation of goggles used and/or the effect of the cloud cover on available light.

Goggles will penetrate fog somewhat. Flight into obscuring phenomenon is quite insidious...cultural lighting (lampposts, runway lights, headlights, etc...) will begin developing haloes and normally distinct objects will progressively blur as the fog gets worse until, ultimately, visual references deteriorate to the point where you may need to remove your goggles. Suddenly it gets very exciting...IIMC. NVG's are in no way something you would intentionally use to allow you to fly in fog.

If indeed the crews were on goggles then the tower lights (had there been any) would have been vaguely visible through the fog. The guy wires would still have been virtually invisible in any regard...no matter if there had been fog or not...goggles don't see wires too well unless they sharply contrast with the background.

Again it is only speculation as to whether they were wearing goggles or not.

In this type of intense wire-threat environment it would only take a momentary distraction of the crew for this tragedy to occur. Unfortunate...

 

[Over-Talk]

My maths ability isn't good enough to figure it out, but imagine the radius of the wire pattern required to hold an 1800ft tower. You could be quite a distance from the tower and still become a tragic victim.
I hate wires.

 

[cap]

The 4th Infantry Division also has 6 National Guard Units at their command from other States. These could well have been NG members that were not 100% familar with the area. They were enroute Texarkana, which is right on the TX/LA border and not all that far away for a 'little hop'. Ft Hood is just 60 miles north of Austen and that's not a long distance to Texarkana. Wouldn't be the first time that someone said "Ahhh hell, it's just a short hop over yonder.... Christ I can hover that far in some bloody fog". Only problem is, that the country there is 'lake and hill country' so that tower might have been 180' high, but if the tower was on a hill and if they were doing 'nap-of-the-earth' then "Jesus"....BANG!!