Insufficient training and human error blamed for National Guard helicopter crashes

[rangerrebew]

Insufficient training and human error blamed for National Guard helicopter crashes
By SVETLANA SHKOLNIKOVA
STARS AND STRIPES • April 12, 2023

CW3 Nick Fussner, left, and Capt. Dean Burgess with Alaska Army National Guard Golf Company, 2-211th, General Support Aviation Battalion prepare the HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter for a flight at Bryant Army Airfield on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, April 5, 2023. Army and Air National Guard helicopter pilots are on average failing to meet training hour goals, contributing to human errors that have caused nearly 300 accidents in the past decade, according to a watchdog report.
CW3 Nick Fussner, left, and Capt. Dean Burgess with Alaska Army National Guard Golf Company, 2-211th, General Support Aviation Battalion prepare the HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter for a flight at Bryant Army Airfield on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, April 5, 2023. Army and Air National Guard helicopter pilots are on average failing to meet training hour goals, contributing to human errors that have caused nearly 300 accidents in the past decade, according to a watchdog report. (Robert DeBerry/Alaska National Guard)


WASHINGTON — Army and Air National Guard helicopter pilots are on average failing to meet training hour goals, contributing to human errors that have caused nearly 300 accidents in the past decade, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office report commissioned by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., blamed most of the accidents on failure to follow training standards, overconfidence, poor communication, and lack of awareness. Schumer ordered the safety review after a medical evacuation helicopter crash near Rochester, N.Y., killed three service members in January 2021.

The report’s findings and safety recommendations have taken on new urgency following last month’s deadly collision of two Army Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopters during a routine nighttime training exercise in Kentucky, Schumer said. All nine soldiers aboard the helicopters died.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2023-04-12/national-guard-helicopter-crashes-report-9783802.html

[rangerrebew]

Who's responsibility is it to insure all pilots are properly trained?  I'll bet the rank of the person responsible is above colonel.

[Smokin Joe]

Who is minding the training budget? No fuel, no spares, no fly.

Weather can be a factor in getting in training time, too.

Maybe they can blame "climate change".

Weather minima for helos:

...in non-icing conditions.

[Fishrrman]

"Insufficient training and human error blamed for National Guard helicopter crashes..."

But I'll betcha they knew their pronouns...!