"How a dangerous night helicopter operation killed..." Topic

…11 Marines and Guardsmen.

"Shortly after two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters took off March 10 in Florida to perform training exercises with elite Special Operations Marines, things started going wrong. Thick sea fog hung just off the shore of the Florida Panhandle ¡ª so much so that one of the helicopters turned back. The second one continued on, and faced near blackout conditions.

¡°Gee, it¡¯s dark as [expletive]. That don¡¯t help none,¡± said one of the pilots moments before crossing the shoreline toward the Santa Rosa Sound, according to a transcript of their audio flight recording. A moment later, his fellow pilot added: ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s too dark to see the [expletive] water.¡±

What followed was an aviation accident that rocked both the Marine Corps and the Louisiana National Guard, which operated the aircraft. The UH-60 ¡ª call sign ¡°MOJO 69¡å ¡ª crashed into the water southwest of Eglin Air Force Base at 8:21 p.m., killing all seven Marines and all four Louisiana Guardsmen on board…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Son of a colleague of mine, whom I respect very much, was one of the fallen. It's true, the best men die early.

Not mentioned in that article, but one of the main reasons for helo crashes at night is that the NVGs worn by pilots and crew do not provide any depth perception.

Thanks for the info my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

Night chopper ops can be very dicey at times. But generally they go off very well based on my past experience. And yes, NVGs whether you are walking, driving or flying depth perception can be challenging. I was hoping that with better, newer versions that would be fixed. It just takes not only a lot of experience to fly with NVGs. But we have to remember weather conditions still affect aircraft even today. Regardless may all those lost RIP …

NVGs don't help when you're flying in fog.

I gotta question why both helos didn't turn back when one decided to.

Yes, even NVGs don't work well in adverse weather like fog … Just a bad situation that went wrong … sadly …

18 soldiers were killed in a similar incident in 1996 near the Townsville Palmetum, where there is a memorial. Two Black Hawks collided in the middle of the night on exercise.