Air Force officers unpunished for role in helicopter crash

Site of the Air Force helicopters crash that killed 12 people

Brother says leaders won't accept responsibility

In this story: 'On a path to disaster' Commader blames politicians RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Jamie McIntyre
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

WASHINGTON -- Although investigators found that leadership problems contributed to the mid-air collision of two U.S. Air Force helicopters in 1998, no officer has ever been held accountable.

The brother of one of the 12 crew members killed in the crash is part of a legal action that accuses Air Force leaders of ignoring safety and failing to accept responsibility.

"In fact, they were told nine to 10 months in advance that if they didn't do something to mitigate these problems they were going to have an accident ... and lo and behold they did," said John Youngblood, whose brother Karl piloted one of the helicopters.

Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, Youngblood's senator, says someone should have recognized the potential for disaster and prevented it.

"It seems to me the general officers have the responsibility of saying 'I can't do this without putting my men at risk,'" said Bond (R-Missouri). "Why was there no warning flag? Why was nothing said up the chain of command?"

'On a path to disaster'

Air Force investigators determined the two HH-60 Pavehawk helicopters that crashed in Nevada in September 1998 were part of a squadron that was overworked and undertrained.

No one in the chain of command at Nellis Air Force Base was ever disciplined

The squadron's officers failed to recognize that the burned-out unit was "on a path to disaster," investigators concluded.

High-demand units like the 66th Rescue Squadron, based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, are supposed to be on "combat footing" for no more than 60 days at a time. At the time of collision, the 66th had been on combat footing for five years.

On the night of the accident, one helicopter struck another from below during demanding evasive action, an investigation determined. The crew of the aircraft that struck the other included "a new instructor pilot, a weak co-pilot and an unqualified gunner."

A six-month-long investigation determined the cause of the accident to be pilot error. But the accident report also detailed problems with "operations tempo, training and leadership."

"What we found was that some people just did not do their jobs," said retired Air Force Capt. Amy Dreifus, one of the investigators.

Commader blames politicians

Although the investigators faulted officers up the chain of command, and a second review this summer also faulted leadership, no one has been disciplined.

A crewman inspects a HH-60 Pavehawk at Nells Air Force Base

Air Force investigators singled out 57th Operations Group Commander Col. Larry New as having "failed to mitigate known safety hazards within the squadron that directly contributed to this accident."

But Air Combat Commander Gen. Richard Hawley, now retired, chose not to punish New. In fact, New was recommended for a promotion to wing commander at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

"The easiest course of action would have been to satisfy everybody, use Col. New as the scapegoat and it would have been done with," Hawley said. "But it would have been the wrong thing to do ... because Col. New had done everything we could ask a prudent commander to do in order to deal with the situation in that unit."

Hawley puts part of the blame on policy-makers who are asking too much of the military while providing too little.

"Somehow that gap has got to be closed," Hawley said. "Until it's closed, we will continue to find units that are under stress like the 66th and will continue to have the problems surface and tragedies occur like the accident two years ago."

A deadly helicopter accident and the debate on military readiness
September 6, 2000
Netscape:
August 28, 2000
12 dead in crash of military helicopters
September 4, 1998

Nellis Air Force Base, NV
U.S. Department of Defense
United States Air Force

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