Air Force board cites several factors in crash that killed 12

Robert Macy

Monday, March 15, 1999 | 6:02 a.m.

LAS VEGAS -- Pilot error, training shortfalls, leadership problems and burnout are among the factors blamed for a midair crash of two Air Force helicopters that killed 12 airmen.

The Air Force Monday released an executive summary compiled by a 10-member Accident Investigation Board that studied the crash of two HH-60G Huey helicopters in rugged terrain 65 miles northwest of here Sept. 3.

The 12 victims were members of the 66th Rescue Squadron. Six were aboard each $10 million helicopter as they navigated through the darkness, carrying out the mock rescue of a stranded airman.

Col. Denver Pletcher led the investigation board. He said one helicopter, Jolly 3-8 - with a new instructor pilot on board, a "marginally qualified copilot and an unqualified gunner in the left scanner position" - hit Jolly 3-9 on the right side from below, its rotor tearing into the side and cockpit area of 3-9.

The two helicopters, flying at an altitude of 100 to 300 feet, crashed and burned near at the foot of the Pintwater Mountain range.

"We think that if any one of the crewmembers in those critical positions we mentioned had been different or more experienced, this accident might not have happened."

Pletcher said too many deployments and exercises broke up normal squadron routines and left the 66th "operating at a constant state of surge, a pace so intense that it disrupted virtually every aspect of squadron life.

"All four pilots in this accident weren't as sharp as they could have been simply because they deployed too much," Pletcher said.

The 66th was "severely overtasked," Pletcher said, with not enough people and equipment to handle the workload.

"The result in this case was chronic fatigue and burnout," he said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., received a briefing from the Pentagon earlier Monday and agreed with Pletcher's assessment.

"We're just asking way too much of our men and women in the military today, and giving them way too little in resources to do the job," Gibbons said in a telephone interview from his Washington, D.C. office.

"This tragedy was born in the readiness environment that our armed forces are forced to operate in today," said Gibbons, an F-4 pilot with the Nevada Air National Guard during the Gulf War.

Gibbons is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

He predicted there could be more such mishaps "because we are asking our military men and women to do more and more without giving them the wherewithal to do it."

Maj. Gen. David MacGhee Jr., director of air and space operations of the Air Combat Command, said Gibbons' assessment was correct.

MacGhee said the Air Force is operating with 330,000 personnel today compared to 670,000 five years ago, and has seen a 40 percent cut in assets during that period. During the five-year span, the Air Force has also seen a 400 percent increase in contingencies to handle, he said.

Pletcher said 18 Air Force teams spent Saturday and Sunday debriefing more than 40 survivors of the 12 airmen about the cause.