[v1r]

On February 22, 2022, two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters of the Utah National Guard were involved in an accident during a training exercise near Mineral Basin, Utah. The incident occurred around 9:30 a.m. during winter survivability and mobility training. As the helicopters approached the landing zone, the trailing aircraft (chalk 2) descended into white-out conditions and unintentionally landed too hard, causing it to roll on its side. A piece of its main rotor blade detached and hit the lead aircraft (chalk 1), leading to a catastrophic mechanical failure of its tail rotor. Despite this, the pilot of chalk 1 managed to land safely.

All crew members survived the crash without injuries, though both helicopters suffered significant damage, with an estimated cost of $9.23 million. The Utah National Guard is reevaluating all Helicopter Landing Zones (HLZs) for suitability in training operations and has no future operations planned using HLZ ****** where the incident occurred. The cause of the accident was identified as human error on the part of the pilot in command of chalk 2. The actions of the pilot in command of chalk 1 were commended for safely landing the aircraft under challenging circumstances.

[William May]

Looks like they generated their own IMC conditions (Blind flying in the snow they stirred up) and then went in. Glad no one was hurt.


Excellent post, V1r! You got about everything connected to it in one post! You're the "HermanShocker" of helicopter accidents!

[kellyhound]

damn, that could have ended in a deadly drama
great find

[Hogmann]

That's usually called the brown out because of the dust being stirred up but in this case a white out would be quite appropriate. It seems like the helicopter in the rear got too close to the one in the front and hit its tail rotor with their main rotor.

[Clubhouse]

Wonder if snow being ingested into the engine of the lead copter and turning into water entering the combustion chamber and causing a flame out of the engine.

[William May]

Originally Posted by Clubhouse ↗

Wonder if snow being ingested into the engine of the lead copter and turning into water entering the combustion chamber and causing a flame out of the engine.

Turbine engines can swallow a LOT of water before they choke and die. Nose first into a lake will do it, but I don't think inhaling snow will bother them much. We did compressor washes where we fed water and detergent right into the engine. The biggest danger there was making sure the nozzle and plumbing assembly was well secured to the inlet, so the engine couldn't inhale it while running. They also used to use ground walnut shells to clean engine compressor and turbine blades, feeding the powder right into the running engine. I have also seen engines where the inlet was hammered flat by hail, and the engine swallowed the rain, hail, and ice, and didn't even burp, according to the pilots. (No damage to the fan blades, and a borescope of the compressor and turbine sections showed no damage whatsoever.)

[ride]

That looked to be well planned. Training exercise right into powder, adjacent to a busy ski area. What could possibly go wrong?

[William May]

Maybe they were training for a snow rescue. It just didn't end well. But at least no one was hurt.

[durt]

Originally Posted by William May ↗

Turbine engines can swallow a LOT of water before they choke and die. Nose first into a lake will do it, but I don't think inhaling snow will bother them much. We did compressor washes where we fed water and detergent right into the engine. The biggest danger there was making sure the nozzle and plumbing assembly was well secured to the inlet, so the engine couldn't inhale it while running. They also used to use ground walnut shells to clean engine compressor and turbine blades, feeding the powder right into the running engine. I have also seen engines where the inlet was hammered flat by hail, and the engine swallowed the rain, hail, and ice, and didn't even burp, according to the pilots. (No damage to the fan blades, and a borescope of the compressor and turbine sections showed no damage whatsoever.)

Nope, they don't like snow, so it's auto re-light, and particle separators

This looks like they lost vertical/horizontal reference. They seamed to spend a long time hovering, and stirring it up. Should have just dropped in

[Desert Rat]

Awesome post! Didn't know about this one. Thanks!

Funny, I had just called my federal senators after Al-Qurayshi was taken out. I asked if either the mh60 was made by Ford or if the chiefs were spending too much time in gender sensitivity training. I never did get an answer.