The Army has released a report on its investigation into a mid-air helicopter crash in a remote mountainous area 60 miles south of Fort Wainwright that killed three soldiers last April.
The report released by the Army Combat Readiness Center is 385 pages long, but much of it, including details about the crash, is heavily redacted. The parts not blacked-out include findings the Army hadn’t previously disclosed, such as: the crash occurred as the two helicopters that collided and a dozen others were flying back to Fort Wainwright after a two-week training exercise.
“All 14 aircraft were AH64Delta Apache helicopters,” says Jimmie Cummings, a spokesperson for the Alabama-based Combat Readiness Center.
Cummings couldn’t talk Thursday about redactions in the report, but clarified some of the information, like exactly where the crash happened.
“The mishap occurred 60 miles south of Ladd Army Airfield,” he said
That’s about 50 miles south of the Tanana River, near the confluence of the Wood River and Sheep Creek.
The report says the 14 Apaches took off from the Donnelly Training Area south of Fort Greely just after noon April 27th and headed west through the Alaska Range for flight to Nenana. From there, they intended to fly over Fairbanks International Airport en route to Ladd Field on Fort Wainwright.
Mid-air collision in mountain pass
The report says about 48 minutes into the flight, the formation turned right and headed north into a mountain pass. Army officials have said there were no weather advisories or visibility problems in the area.
The report says the two Apaches that were about to collide were traveling at about 82 miles an hour at 32-hundred feet in altitude, about 250 feet above ground level. Then, 30 seconds after they executed the turn, the pilot of one of the Apaches slowed down and lost sight of the other, then tried to increase airspeed and hit the main rotor blades of the other aircraft. Both of the helicopters then crashed into the side of a mountain.
A crew member aboard one of the helicopters then transmitted a mayday call. But the report says, quote, “There were no mayday calls or radio transmissions” from the other Apache.
The three soldiers who died were assigned to the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment: 39-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Eramo, of New York; 28-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle McKenna, of Colorado, and 32-year-old Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Wayment, of Utah.
A fourth soldier who hasn’t been identified was injured and hospitalized.
Portions of the report on lessons learned and recommendations based on them were both redacted.
The Army released the report last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by KUAC.
