Helo crash report cites waived safety meeting

[unhappycamper]

Helo crash report cites waived safety meeting
By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jun 15, 2008 9:14:30 EDT

A skipped safety briefing that was waived by an unnamed commanding officer was one of the factors that led to a helicopter crash that killed five crew members during a night training mission in Nevada last year, a Navy investigation found.

The helicopter, an SH-60F Seahawk assigned to the “Dusty Dogs” of Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron 7, was flying May 7, 2007, with a second Seahawk at 75 nautical miles per hour seconds before striking power lines near Naval Air Station Fallon, Nev., flipping twice and bursting into flames as it hit the ground.

“Aircrew coordination/cockpit coordination was a factor as the aircrew did not brief the routes of flight, airspeed, or update their charts with the Chart Updating Manual prior to flight,” says the report, released in June through a Freedom of Information Act request.

All five crew members died instantly, investigators said. The second helicopter, which was flying behind and slightly above the downed helicopter, was not damaged; none of its crew members was injured.

Investigators say the downed aircraft’s pilots also were not briefed about maximum airspeed in a “low illumination mountainous environment,” as the Fallon area was that night, and that the second helicopter’s crew commented on the downed helicopter flying “a little too fast” in the moments before the crash before deciding that the speed was not unsafe and there was no need to radio ahead.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/navy_helocrash_061508w/