‘No survivors’ in Black Hawk helicopter crash near Huntsville
by: Kait Newsum, Jess Grotjahn
Posted: Feb 15, 2023 / 03:24 PM CST
Updated: Feb 15, 2023 / 05:49 PM CST

UPDATE: Pentagon officials confirmed with CBS News that this helicopter was a part of a training mission with the Tennessee National Guard.

MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Several emergency crews responded to a military helicopter crash near Highway 53 and Burwell Road.

Don Webster with HEMSI confirmed with News 19 that there were no survivors in the crash. The Madison County Coroner Tyler Berryhill told News 19 that he had been called to the scene.

ederal Aviation Agency (FAA) officials confirmed that a military helicopter was involved in the crash. They could not release any details about the origin of the flight.

ALEA identified the helicopter as a UH-60, which is a Black Hawk.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRtQreY4/


Came down FAST and hard

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRtQreY4/


Came down FAST and hard

Damm ....
Hard way to die.
Families gotta be struck hard by this.

Kinda wonder if the pilot put it into a dive to keep up rotor speed and couldn't get nose/flare up to start autorotation braking.

Lotta Blackhawks in the mid 80,s had transmission/ rotor head failures and went straight down like that.


😔😔😔

Madison County helicopter crash could have killed many people, resident says: ‘That pilot was a hero’

Madison County helicopter crash could have killed many people, resident says: ‘That pilot was a hero’Madison County helicopter crash could have killed many people, resident says: ‘That pilot was a hero’
Updated: Feb. 15, 2023, 9:53 p.m.|Published: Feb. 15, 2023, 9:45 p.m.

Susan Shepard heard the helicopter loudly buzzing over her home in Harvest.

Minutes later, the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed on a Madison County highway, killing the two Tennessee National Guardsman aboard the aircraft.

Shepard was in her home in the Burwell Gardens subdivision when her alarm went off at 2:58 p.m. Wednesday to remind her to pick up her daughter from Sparkman High School.

“All of the sudden, we heard this loud noise. It sounded like a dragster car, or like when a tractor-trailer shifts down or puts on its brakes,” Shepard told AL.com.

As she headed out the door, her neighbor told her a helicopter just crashed.

“I turned to right and turned out of our subdivision when I saw the big, black plume of smoke,” Shepard recalled.

The Harvest resident turned onto Madison County Highway 53 when she saw the burnt wreckage.

“Everyone was pulled over and stopped, so I pulled over and stopped and took a few videos of it as well,” she said.

“It was heartbreaking,” Shepard added. “I could tell from what I saw that there were no survivors.”

The Tennessee National Guard said two of its soldiers were killed in the crash, which occurred during a routine training mission.

While the investigation into the crash is in its early stages, Shepard speculated that since she heard the helicopter over her house minutes before the crash that the pilot maneuvered so he could avoid casualties on the ground.

“I think that that pilot was a hero and probably saved a lot of lives,” she said.

My boy is in Alabama training on Apaches right now.

They were grounded for about 8 of my 15 months in ROK during the mid-80s.

Teeder our office is next to Hunt Field (Rucker) where the Apaches fly in and out of regularly. I park 50 yards from the strip and watch them often. Its pretty cool.

Yeah, that's bad stuff, sorry to hear that. RIP.

My daughter-in-law, and the mother of my grand daughter, is a crew chief on a black hawk for the WV NG. I've never really worried about this sort of thing, but it happens. It'll make me think twice now.

Showed the video to my daughter (former Blackhawk pilot) and son-in-law (crew chief) and they both felt he must have lost part of the rotor. I, who have no expertise whatsoever, thought the same thing when I saw it. GD

I was just talking to my son about this and he said my DIL heard about it as soon as it happened. She said that they're speculating maybe a tail rotor failure. She said that the "Crash Hawks" have a reputation for that. She also said that her unit just recently got new birds. Their old ones were from the 1990's.

The tail rotors have grip inserts (cones) that have to be torqued over a period of time. During the tail rotor rebuild (phase maintenance) you put in the inserts (cones) that go between the blade grips and the tail rotor hub and they have to be torqued to a specified number (I don't recall the number at this moment) and then after a resting period (usually overnight) they have to be retorqued again. It's a bit drawn out but it's not difficult.

They get retorqued after the first 5 hours of flight time and then retorqued every 100 hours until the next phase (500 hours) when everything comes apart again for inspection. I always thought this was an unusual way of attaching a tail rotor blade but there were several such inserts that were used on the Huey as well with very good results. Is it possible that a blade came off because of improper torque ? (maintenance mistake) Maybe. Big maybe.

I tend to think it was a blade that had a flaw and one of the tail rotor blades came loose or separated and now the tail rotor system is out of balance. I could not tell via the video if the tail rotor gear box and blades were still attached to the bird. Most of the time they completely separate in such a case. I'm sure it will get figured out before too many days pass. Unfortunately, 2 pilots lost their life. The upside is there were no passengers and no crew chief to add to the casualty numbers.

kwg

It crashed about a half mile from a buddy’s house. He texted me right after and said he’d heard the crash. He’s a former U2 & F/A-18 pilot & he said it sounded like they tried to pull a bunch of collective before the impact like they were trying to autorotate.

I’m glad to hear there were only two on board, there could have been a lot more deaths. God speed.