A US Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk operated by the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment under Joint Task Force-Bravo crashed in Honduras on Wednesday.
I reached out to US SOUTHCOM for any info they could give me and received this via email.
Pilots flying a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter made a precautionary emergency landing approximately five miles east of Soto Cano Air Base at 9:34 a.m. Wednesday. All five crew members were evaluated by medical personnel, and no significant injuries have been reported. The aircrew was performing routine training in the area. An investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the incident. The aircraft and aircrew are assigned to 1-228th Aviation Regiment out of Soto Cano Air Base near Comayagua, Honduras.
Steven Mcloud (SOUTHCOM Media relations officer)
The crashed Sikorsky Uh-60 Blackhawk.
The Blackhawk received significant damage on impact appearing to have snapped its tail off. The fuselage appears mostly intact, likely saving the crews life, although injuries were initially reported. Those injuries haven’t been confirmed but were reported by other outlets who spoke with Carlos Padilla, head of Air Navigation at the Honduran Civil Aeronautics Agency (AHAC).
Before the crash the crew had declared an emergency Mayday distress signal according to AHAC.
Video of the aftermath of the crash.
The military will conduct its investigation and depending on the findings will release its report sometime in the future. Whether this crash was mechanical or pilot error is yet to be determined.
February 17 concluded a 24 hour flight for a number of US aircraft that went on a “show of force” mission. Also called a “force projection” demonstration through the Middle East.
Flying out of RAF Fairford, South of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, 2 US B-52 Stratofortress long range bombers made their way south over Europe and into the Mediterranean and then on to the Middle East.
The Bombers were joined by a number of escorts from 4 regional partner nations at various points during its mission as well as at least 2 U.S. F-15 Strike Eagles.
B-52s flying with 2 US F-15 Strike Eagles as well as two unknown partner nation F-16s Vipers.
“Bomber Task Force missions demonstrate U.S. power projection capability, commitment to regional security, and ability to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict in the CENTCOM region”said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander.
While being mainly a power projection mission the bombers also took part in dropping live munitions on several target ranges located in partner nations.
Live fire range bombing (location unknown released by US CENTCOM)
These bombers are apart of the 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron that just started the U.S. Air Forces first European bomber deployment for the year. They will fly out of RAF Fairford and are under command of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFA).
Some of the B-52s in Europe had already been photographed earlier this week when a picture was released by USAFE out of the cockpit of a B-52 showing them flying alongside French Dassault Rafales, Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripens, and Finnish F/A-18 Hornets,other photos were later released of the the flight. (shown below)
Operation APEX COMMANDER shows the U.S. Bombers operating with European allied fighters.
“Bomber Task Force missions reinforce our ability to rapidly project combat power, demonstrating U.S. lethality and readiness in a dynamic security environment,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Campo, U.S. Air Forces in Europe–Air Forces
While the U.S. has shown a desire to back away from European security it’s likely that the bomber deployments will, at least for the moment remain. US Allies do not, for the most part, have the ground attack capabilities that aircraft like the B-52, the B-1 and the B-2s can bring (as well as the new B-21 Raider. and interest in training alongside these bomber forces remains high.
Today, at around 10:15 PDT A US navy Boeing EA-18G Growler Electronic Attack Jet assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135 crashed while taking off at NAS (Navel Air Station) North Island. The pilot and copilot are both unharmed as they ejected into the San Diego harbor and were picked up. The crew were originally picked up by a sport fishing charter boat the M/V Marietta, before being transferred to a Customs and border patrol craft according to radio calls made in the area that were recorded. The customs patrol boat transported them back to shore where they are now receiving medical attention at UC San Diego Health.
With the crew being recovered emergency crews will respond to the wreckage to investigate as well as clean up and debris and fuel from the crash. According to radio calls from the area there is a large amount of fuel and the navy has dispatched response teams.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
CCTV Video shows the EA-18G Growler coming in down in a quick descent. Essentially falling out of the sky. The camera barely catches it.
The aircraft had traveled to San Diego for ongoing exercises, leaving its home airbase at NAS Whidbey Island in Washington State. It’s unknown if the aircraft was taking part in the Bamboo Eagle 25-1 exercise currently taking place in the pacific.
NAS Whidbey Island
Bamboo Eagle is a massive event focused on a possible high stakes conflict in the Pacific Ocean with China. Being led by the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center in Nellis it has brought dozens of not hundreds of military aircraft to the region for this combined arms operation with the U.S. and several key allies.
Video taken from twitter user San Diego web cams shows footage from their livestream as well as the radio calls that happens after the crash.
The EA-18G Growler is the U.S. Navy’s Electronic Attack aircraft that began to replace the EA-6B Prowler around the late 2010s. Based on the airframe of the F/A-18(E/F) It has since then become an integral part of the carrier air wing. The Growler swapped out the Super hornets main cannon with a strong AN/APG-79 AESA Radar. The plane has 9 weapons hard points but will almost always have 5 of those hard points taken up by ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming pods. The hard points that are left open are usually equipped with either AIM-120 AMRAAM for air threats or more likely AGM-88 HARM Anti-Radiation Missile that track enemy radar signals. The two wingtip rails that would usually hold AIM-9X sidewinders was replaced for AN/ALQ-218 passive radar warning receivers to detect enemy radar.
While mostly known for jamming enemy radar enemy communication can also be jammed by the Growlers suite of comms jamming systems.
Australian EA-18G Growler
While the growler with its jamming pods can defeat all current air and surface threats it comes up against its future is always in question as new and more advanced radars are developed and fielded and it’s jamming pods become out of date. The airframe is only as good as its equipment that needs to be updated in the near future.
Author note.
We here at GCR respect and appreciate any aircraft and crew capable of the roles of SEAD and DEAD. Suppression and destruction of enemy air defense is one of the most important roles in the always critical task of establishing aerial supremacy. The Growler holds a special place in my heart as did the Prowler that came before. Hats off to all of today and yesterday’s Electronic Attack Planes as well as the F-4 that carried out the insane Wild Weasel missions.
If you are somebody with knowledge of this story contact Scott at GCR. My contact info is on the Website and I would love to talk on or off the record regarding this story.
US Forces kill senior operative of Terror Group Hurras al-Din in Syria.
The aftermath of the airstrike that killed Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir in Northwestern Syria.
On January 30th US CENTCOM (Central Command) forces conducted an airstrike in northwestern Syria targeting a senior operative of the US classified Terror group Huertas Al-Din (HaD) an affiliate of Al-Qaeda. The target was Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir a former ISIS member who later went on to become a member of the Syrian At-Qaeda branch. Not much else is known about him besides that CENTCOM describes him as a “Senior member” in the group.
A statement from CENTCOM on the strike:
“The airstrike is part of CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the U.S., our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond”
It ends with a warning from commander of CENTCOM, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla.
“CENTCOM will continue to hunt and kill or capture terrorists and defend our homeland against groups that plot to attack U.S. and allied personnel,”
A ring camera catches the Learjet as it falls from the sky.
An airplane operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, in Pennsylvania crashed earlier today leaving 6 dead.
The plane was a medical transport plane carrying two pilots, two doctors, the patient and a family member and crashed shortly after takeoff. As the crash happened in the middle of the city the horrific explosion was recorded by several different cameras showing multiple angles, including one bystander who was a couple dozen feet away when the plane hit the ground.
The flight departed Philadelphia Airport (PNE) for Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri at 23:06 UTC(7:06PMEST), reaching a maximum altitude of 1,650 ft at 23:06:54. Its last recorded ADB-S reading showed the plane losing altitude at a vertical rate of -11,008 ft per minute.
Some data on the flight from Flightradar 24.A visualization from ADS-B Exchange.
Not much is known about why the plane crashed. Possible icing conditions have been given as an explanation but we can’t yet confirm anything.
Several houses in the area of the crash were set on fire and fire fighters are currently fighting those fires.
A video from a bystander who witnessed the ground impact from several dozen ft. away.
Wreckage of Flight 5342Search and rescue efforts underway.Images from a rescue helicopter show the debris in the river.
PSA Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ700 passenger jet ,registered N530EA, was on a Wichita, Kansas -to-D.C path when on final approach for runway 33 at Ronald Regan Airport (DCA) when a Blackhawk helicopter, carrying 3 people collided with the plane sending it into the Potomac river with its 60 passengers and 4 crew aboard. One person on the ground was also killed as both aircraft fell into the river.
ADS-B exchange shows the flight of the CRJ at the time of impact.ADS-B shows the path of the Blackhawk before impact.
A search a rescue effort involving over 300 people has failed to turn up any survivors. 18 body’s have been pulled from the river at the time of writing.
Initially, there was some confusion on the identity of the helicopter as it was first mistakenly reported as apart of the DC metro police fleet and then again misidentified as UH-60 used for VIP transport. Heather Chairez, a spokesperson for the joint task force-National Capital Region confirmed the aircraft was a UH-60 Blackhawk on a training mission.
Airports have altitude restrictions for helicopters, usually keeping them around 200ft above ground level at the point of impact the plane would have been around 400-500 ft. Audio released after the accident confirms that the plane was pointed out to the helicopter crew. It’s likely that when asked to confirm they could see the plane, they might have looked at another plane that was coming in at the same time to land on a different runway. The plane was in a blind spot that would have been difficult to see.
More information will come out in the following days. This is all based on information I’ve gathered from statements given by officials as well as open sources and could possibly be flawed.
Info will be added here as it come out.
Updates.
Helicopter was with Bravo Company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It was conducting a training flight at the time of the crash.
Several aviation enthusiasts around the DC area have said that a crash like this around Ronald Reagan was a case of “when not if” Helicopters regularly fly that route down the river coming within a couple hundred feet of airplanes on final.
Hi, this is Scott. I just wanted to say that my heart goes out to those affected by this accident. Tragedies like this are the hardest for me to write about but I know that doesn’t compare to the pain felt by those affected.
Global Conflict Reporting 
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