We departed from our forward operating base in Diwanyah, Iraq, on a routine patient medical transport mission to the Baghdad Combat Support Hospital (CSH). Due to the nature of our business, my crew and I were required to fly during all hours of the day and night - often being tasked for multi-mission scenarios. The first part of the mission was uneventful because it was a day visual flight rules flight. This enabled us to see much of the scenic countryside and wave to villagers as we flew by. We made the appropriate air traffic control calls regarding our flying location in the correct corridors. It had become second nature to us by now - almost like flying back in the U.S.
As we approached the hospital, I was flight lead and called the other aircraft to communicate our initial speed and altitude reduction. I reduced the collective pitch to stabilize our descent and reduce airspeed, but then had to add a little power (collective). However, when I tried, I was unable to pull in collective, which was not good. That's where our flight started to deteriorate.
I asked my co-pilot, who was navigating and talking on the radios, if he had put the friction on. We sometimes flew with more friction on the collective so aircraft vibrations wouldn't lower the collective.
He said, "No," but proceeded to loosen it anyway, just in case. This freed up the collective, allowing me to regain control of the collective. All was good again.
About a half mile from the hospital, I called the other aircraft to announce our second and final speed and altitude reduction before landing. Again, I lowered the collective to reduce speed and altitude. When the aircraft slowed to the speed and altitude that I desired, I again tried to add power. However, once again the collective would not move! I jiggled and pulled, and still nothing happened.
At this point in the flight, we were committed. We were less than 100 feet above the ground, which was approaching very fast! If you've seen the CSH pad in Baghdad, you will remember it is only large enough to land four Black Hawks - and that has to be in two rows of two. Also, the concrete pad (which was looking very small and coming at me quickly) was surrounded by 9-foot-tall T-walls. Yes, T-walls.
I had no power control and my aircraft was losing altitude very quickly. I needed a larger landing area so I could do a controlled roll-on landing. I notified my crew that we had a serious problem and to lock all of their shoulder harnesses and brace for impact. I pulled up the nose of the aircraft sharply in a decelerating attitude to reduce speed rapidly and to stop our decent. I was using aircraft drag and power to stop from slamming into the concrete pad. Miraculously, we hit the ground with little downward force, but we were still moving forward, rapidly approaching the T-walls at the end of the landing zone. I was literally standing on the brakes when we came to a stop just a few feet from the T-wall.
After regaining my breath, I made sure no one had been injured during our abrupt maneuvers. Then, I tried to find out what had jammed the collective pitch. The first thing I noticed was the night vision goggles my co-pilot had stored above the collective had fallen behind it and lodged in place. That's what prevented me from raising the collective. We had an intense discussion about storing things more appropriately next time. After we checked the aircraft for damage, we proceeded with the day's operations, always paying a great deal of attention to the flight controls.
This brings me to my lessons learned from this near accident. During flight training at Fort Rucker, one of the most often repeated phrases is "attention to detail." My crew and I had covered all the obvious risks and planned for most unexpected hazards, but this one had us perplexed and it almost cost us a UH-60 and, possibly, a flight crew. We must constantly be on the alert, paying attention to details. Those details can be the margin between life and death. I'll always have that lesson with me as I continue flying to support the Army aviation mission.
Social Sharing