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Team to investigate Kiowa crash that killed 2

A six-member team from the Army’s Combat Readiness/Safety Center at Fort Rucker in Alabama is on its way to Hawaii to investigate Wednesday’s fatal helicopter crash at Wheeler Army Airfield, officials said yesterday.

Two 0H-58D Kiowa Warrior pilots died in the hard landing and what witnesses said were one or two subsequent fires at about 3:30 p.m. on the airfield.

The pilots aboard the two-seat scout attack helicopter were with the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade out of Schofield Barracks.

An Idaho TV station reported that one of the pilots is from Pocatello in eastern Idaho. The Pentagon is expected to release the names 24 hours after family members are notified.

One soldier was pronounced dead at the scene, and the second died at Wahiawa General Hospital.

The 2,400-soldier 25th Combat Aviation Brigade is training for a fall return to Iraq.

“Obviously, it’s a very tragic event, and we’ve already spoken to most of our soldiers throughout the brigade, and our condolences have gone out to the families,” said Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone Marshall, an aviation brigade spokesman.

Marshall said an Army Criminal Investigation Command, or CID, investigation also is ongoing.

“We did talk with them [on Wednesday],” he said.

A pause in flying was put in place yesterday out of respect for the fallen soldiers, but Marshall said there has not been a safety standdown for the unit’s Kiowa Warrior helicopters.

“More than likely, the cause of the crash was an isolated incident, and not leading us to believe something is wrong with the aircraft,” Marshall said.

The Army said the two soldiers were killed as a result of a “hard landing” during a general maintenance test flight.

Local environmentalist Carroll Cox, who lives in Mililani, said he spoke to someone with knowledge of the incident who said the pilots were conducting auto rotation when the single-engine helicopter crashed.

A veteran Kiowa Warrior pilot said an auto-rotational RPM check can be conducted by a maintenance test pilot after work is done on a helicopter.

Power is disengaged from the rotors, but the rotors keep turning and the helicopter can continue to fly and land, he said. The pilot asked that he not be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

The pilot said the 34-foot, two-seat scout helicopter, which can be outfitted with missiles, rockets and a 50-cal. machine gun, is designed to fly at relatively low altitude and is not very fast, but is very maneuverable and responsive.

The Kiowa is one of the oldest helicopters in the Army, but is very reliable.

“They are mechanically very sound aircraft. They are not complex,” the pilot said. “It’s a very simple machine compared to some of the other helicopters that are a lot of electronic and fly-by-wire stuff. It’s like a Volkswagen Beetle. It’s reliable.”

The crash investigators will include a safety board president who is a lieutenant colonel or higher, a findings recorder, an Army standards instructor pilot, a maintenance examiner, technical examiner and flight surgeon. Other experts may be called in, officials said.

Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., which makes the helicopter, said the first deployment of 0H-58As to battle units in Vietnam was in 1969. The Army took delivery of the first 0H-58D advanced Scouts in 1986.

There are 338 0H-58D Kiowa Warriors in the Army, officials said.

The 2-6 Cavalry comprises a Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, three OH-58D Kiowa Warrior Troops, an Aviation Unit Maintenance Troop, a Forward Support Troop, and a RQ-7B Shadow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Troop.

The “Lightning Horse” Squadron completed a 15-month deployment to Kirkuk, Iraq, returning to Hawaii in October 2007.

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