Company Responds To Army Report Stemming From 2015 Accident

In its investigation of an accident involving a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in November, 2015, the U.S. Army reported that the aircraft was "not airworthy" from November 10 until the accident occurred on November 15 because "the tail rotor had been out of balance (greater than 0.7 inches per second)"

But Sikorsky, which manufactures the helicopter, has a different view. The Killeen Daily Herald reports that the company contends that an off-balance tail rotor is "a very minor discrepancy that would not have an impact on the flight characteristics of the aircraft."

Four soldiers from Fort Hood were fatally injured when the helicopter went down.

The U.S. Army report also states that the aircraft did not experience a mechanical failure, and a visual inspection of the helo after the accident "revealed no pre-existing defects or anomalies that would have contributed to this accident.”

Sikorsky spokesman Paul Jackson said that the company was not part of the investigation and has no knowledge of the Army's report. He said he was providing the information about the tail rotor for informational purposes only.

Jackson said that his experts also contend that an unbalanced tail rotor would not cause a flight path stabilization warning to activate. “If there is a failure in the Flight Path Stabilization (FPS) System, the Master Caution and FPS caution/warning lights would illuminate, but there is no audible warning,” he said. “We cannot comment on any impact the warning lights may have had on the pilot flying the aircraft.”

Jackson said that the UH-60 can be manually flown without an operational FPS system.

The First Army Division West released a separate report in September that listed pilot error as the cause of the accident. The Army report in December redacted that information.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.army.mil, www.sikorsky.com