Report has few answers in fatal Seahawk crash

[unhappycamper]

[]i]A report on the crash of a MH-60S Seahawk, like the one seen here, has yielded few answers.


Report has few answers in fatal Seahawk crash
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jan 19, 2008 17:56:52 EST

SAN DIEGO — With a full load of fuel and boxed lunches tucked aboard their MH-60S Seahawk helicopter, the four-member aircrew went airborne and settled in for their plane guard mission for search and rescue during an afternoon of flight operations.

Their Jan. 26, 2007, mission started at 1:42 p.m., when they lifted from the deck of amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard during a pre-deployment at-sea training period with Expeditionary Strike Group 3. At 2:14 p.m., flying a route at 1,000 feet, lead pilot Lt. Andrew A. Dyer reported to the ship’s air boss that operations were “normal” as Marine Corps helicopters took to the air for a planned boarding mission.

Just nine minutes later, the radio screeched with the helicopter’s Electronic Locator Transmitter alarm and, almost immediately, came the harrowing call: “Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

The Seahawk, known as “Bullet 10” for this mission, was falling out of the sky, slamming tail-down into the Pacific, 16 miles off San Clemente Island. The four-member aircrew was killed.

The helicopter, assigned to Detachment 3 of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, dropped into the sea and quickly sank. The crew of “Bullet 11,” another MH-60S flying nearby, pulled an unresponsive Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 2nd Class Christopher M. Will, 29, from the ocean. But Dyer, 26, along with his co-pilot, Lt. j.g. Laura J. Mankey, 26, and AW1 Cory J. Helman, 27, remained in the helicopter, which settled 3,700 feet below the surface.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/navy_helocrash_080119w/