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AA Plane Crash

Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk: helicopter model, years in service, war conflicts in which he has participated and accidental history

The helicopter collided with passenger plane carrying 64 people and crew, crashing into the Potomar River late on Wednesday night.

What is the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter?
Kacper PempelREUTERS

Emergency response teams are scrambling to rescue passengers involved in a mid-air collision between a passenger plane and a US Army helicopter in Washington, D.C.

The incident happened late on Wednesday evening when the plane crashed with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk as it approached Ronald Reagan Washingotn National Airport. The plane, a Bombadier CRJ700, had departed from Wichita, Kansas.

The Black Hawk helicopter had left Fort Belvoir, Virginia and had three US soldiers aboard on a training flight. CBS has reported that 18 people have been confirmed as dead but the final death toll will likely be significantly higher. Investigators are still struggling to establish the cause of the crash.

What is the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter?

The ‘Black Hawk’ helicopter is one of the most storied in US military history and it has been in active use since 1979. The prototype was submitted by Sikorsky Aircraft in 1972 and was selected by the US Army in 1976, and given the moniker UH-60.

Since then it have proven remarkably tough, used in ware zones around the world and being tasked with some of the most difficult air missions in US military history. The Black Hawk features self-sealing, crash-resistant fuel tanks that limit the risk posed by small-arms fire in conflict zone. The tail rotor blade design includes ballistically resilient materials and the cockpit has an armoured shell.

With two engines and a four-blade propeller the Black Hawk is also surprisingly fast, capable of cruising at over 100mph and lifting 8,0000 pounds. The design also allows it to be broken down easily and transported in heavy-lift aircrafts, meaning that it can be quickly deployed wherever in the world it is needed.

Black Hawk US military history

Over the past 45 years the Black Hawk has been used in combat in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Ukraine, the Balkans and Afghanistan, amongst other countries.

The most famous use, however, was in the Somalia where a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in 1993. The crew were attempting to capture Somalian faction leader Mohamed Farrah Aidad but ended up in a close combat battle in Mogadishu, the country’s capital. The incident was immortalised in the Mark Bowden book ‘Black Hawk Down’, later turned into a Ridley Scott film. That was the most cinematic of the Black Hawk’s military escapades across nearly a half-century of action.

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