Military Confronts Reckless Air Crashes

[brooklynite]

WASHINGTON - A deadly aircraft accident in Afghanistan last summer is one of a series of exasperating crashes in the military that was blamed on recklessness, not enemy gunfire or faulty equipment, The Associated Press found.

Events that led to the crash unfolded as 11 Marines packed into an Army Black Hawk helicopter in eastern Afghanistan asked for an exciting flight on an otherwise dull mission, demonstrating for visiting dignitaries how troops are sped into battle. "Fly hard," the Marines asked. The cockpit responded, "You asked for it."

Climbing and swooping, the Black Hawk pilot crested a 400-foot hill then deliberately nosed into a dive so steep and abrupt that everyone inside felt weightless. A wheel chock rose off the floor like a magician's prop and flew forward into the cockpit, jamming the controls.

In the horrific, tumbling crash that followed, a crew chief in the doorway died. Everyone else was injured. The $6 million helicopter was destroyed.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20050508/ap_on_re_us/rogue_pilots
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So, people died because the military was showing off. You'd think after the sub accident, they'd know better.

[DeepModem Mom]

1. kick

[truthisfreedom]

2. okay, first off, tie down all loose items in the copters from now on.

whether or not they are hot-dogging, pilots should have a reasonable expectation that control-jamming wheel chocks won't be flying around.