Utah: 2 Black Hawks Crash After Rotor Blade Hits Other Helicopter During Landing
Two black hawk helicopters crashed on Utah on Tuesday while on a winter mountain training near a popular ski resort.
The crash was confirmed by a Utah national guard, calling the incident in the American Fork Canyon a "blessing," as there were no reported casualties following the accident, FOX 13 reported.
Reports noted that the incident was placed under investigation.
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Utah Black Hawk Helicopters Crash Near Ski Resort
According to Aviation Public Affairs Officer Jared Jones, the black hawk helicopters, known as UH-60, involved in the crash were participants of a winter mountain training. The 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion and the 211th Aviation Regimen were also reportedly part of the training in which the choppers participated.
"We train this as a part of routine mission set. So both summertime and wintertime mountains training, including dust and snow conditions, including, we call it a full white-out condition," Jones highlighted, adding that they experience landing on difficult areas that is why they train on these environments as a "standard."
The Daily Mail reported that the black hawk crash exactly occurred in the Mineral Basin, a backside bowl area at the snowbird ski resort. The said area is about 28 miles from Utah's Salt Lake City.
"As they landed, the snow kicked up and the aircraft probably lost sight of the ground," Lt. Jones said.
Jones said that the accident occurred when the first helicopter landed, per CNN. He then stressed that the blade of the lead black hawk helicopter separated, and it struck the second helicopter
During the landing, the report mentioned that a blade from the second helicopter's main rotor system struck the main black hawk helicopter, prompting its tail rotor to come out and force one of the choppers to land on its side.
Witnesses to the helicopter crash described what they saw and heard during the accident.
According to Robbie Shine, a Colorado native who was on the site during the accident, they heard "metal crashing" and then a "big cloud of all the new snow came flying up," per KSL TV 5.
"It was scary because one of the helicopters that were [closest] to the Mineral Basin life ended up being feet away from those people were standing," Shine said.
Another witness from the Mineral Basin, Billy Halloran, said that they thought what happened was an explosion as they expected "the worst" could have happened.
"I saw the choppers coming in and to be honest, it looked kind of weird from the start, thinking this is unusual following so close together," Halloran said.
Utah Black Hawk Crash Reports Zero Casualties
As the black hawk helicopters crashed in Utah, authorities reported that there were no casualties following the accident.
Fox 13 noted that the experienced crews on either of the helicopters were not injured in the accident.
Second general support aviation battalion commander, Major Matthew Green, expressed his thoughts on the incident.
"We are grateful that no one has seriously injured thanks to the quick reaction and training of both command pilots... Right now, our top priority is taking care of both crews," Green said.
Meanwhile, Jones pointed out that skiers were also safe during the incident.
Both black hawk helicopters that crashed were damaged and it was still unclear if they are still usable.
On Tuesday, Utah's National Guard announced that all training flights were canceled until further notice.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written By: Joshua Summers
WATCH: 2 National Guard Black Hawk helicopters crash in American Fork Canyon - From FOX 13 News Utah
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