March 11, 2004

Engine failure caused fatal Pave Low crash last year

Associated Press

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. — Engine failure led to a helicopter crash late last year that killed five military personnel in Afghanistan.
The MH-53 Pave Low from Hurlburt’s 16th Special Operations Wing broke up after a hard landing on a rocky river bank nine miles east of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

The trouble began with a compressor stall in the No. 2 engine about five minutes after taking off Nov. 23, according to an Air Force Special Operations Command investigative summary released Wednesday.

The aircraft reversed course and the crew tried to jettison auxiliary fuel tanks but without success. The heavy weight of the fuel tanks and high altitude in mountainous terrain contributed to failure of the second engine, according to the report.

The Pave Low, which had been 150 to 200 feet off the ground, came down on an embankment, severing its tail boom. The rest of the aircraft landed upside down and then caught fire.

“It was a series of (malfunctions), but it was not human factor,” said Air Force Special Operations Command spokeswoman Master Sgt. Ginger Schreitmueller. “It was mechanical in nature.”

The heavy-lift Pave Low was part of a two-helicopter formation transporting troops during an operation in mountainous terrain that targeted Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

The three Hurlburt airmen killed were Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Walkup Jr., 25, a flight engineer from Millville, N.J.; Tech. Sgt. Howard A. Walters, 33, an aerial gunner from Port Huron, Mich., and Tech. Sgt. William J. Kerwood, 37, a flight engineer from Houston, Mo.

Also killed were Maj. Steven Plumhoff, 33, a pilot from Neshanic Station, N.J., who had been stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., with the 58th Special Operations Wing and Army Sgt. Maj. Phillip R. Albert, 41, of Plymouth, Conn., who was with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y.

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 Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC

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