Airmen help save lives following UH-60 crash at Tallil

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Don Perrien
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Just after 9:20 p.m. Sept. 21, two Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters took off from the flightline here.

Two minutes later, something went horribly wrong with one of them.

“The first thing I heard was a loud, dull thud, kind of like a fist hitting a wooden wall,” said Senior Airman John Byrum, a firefighter assigned to the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron. “I looked out toward the flightline, and I saw the helicopter bounce off the ground. There was a burst of flame, and then it rolled to a stop.”

The helicopters, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 244th Aviation Regiment, were on their way back to their unit after a short stop here. The trailing helicopter of the pair was now lying in pieces on the ground.

“As soon as I heard the noise and saw the crash, I grabbed my radio and made a call to the rescue crew,” Airman Byrum said. “I threw on my firefighting gear and jumped in the rescue truck.”

As the Blackhawk hit the ground and rolled to a stop, the aircraft’s interior became a jangled and crushed mess of wires, equipment and smoke. The largest part of the remaining fuselage rested on its side, with the side door open to the evening sky. The multimillion-dollar aircraft was now a broken mass of twisted metal, with four Soldiers trapped inside.

“The first thing I saw when I got to the site was the wreckage; it didn’t even look like a helicopter anymore,” Airman Byrum said. “The tail of the helicopter was gone, the main blades had come off, and there were just pieces of wreckage everywhere.

“But the important thing at the moment was saving the aircrew,” he said. “When we rolled up to the site, there was one guy who had already made his way out of the wreck. He had a pretty nasty cut on his face, and seemed to be in shock -- but at least he was up and moving.

“We directed him off to the side and headed into the main body of what was left of the helicopter,” the firefighter said. “I climbed to the top of the wreckage and found a second Soldier strapped to his seat. I reached out to cut the helicopter’s engine off and (free) the injured Soldier, when we discovered another Soldier also strapped to his seat underneath the first.

“When we went to cut the straps off the second Soldier, I heard a female voice scream out from behind me,” Airman Byrum said. “Like the others, she was still strapped in her seat, but the wreckage had pinned her against the side of the airframe.”

The rescue crews placed the initial three patients on backboards and prepared them for transport. While the firefighters worked diligently to remove the aircrew from the wreckage, medics prepared for the worst.

“When the crash phone rings, that’s never a good thing,” said Tech. Sgt. Carolyn Clark, noncommissioned officer in charge of the emergency room here. “But it’s what we train for each and every day.”

Within moments, two ambulance crews scrambled to respond at the scene. The rescue crews told them there were four patients for transport, three outside the downed helicopter, and one Soldier trapped inside. Within four minutes of the crash, Sergeant Clark’s team and the 407th Expeditionary Medical Group’s ambulances arrived.

“When the ambulances (arrived), the first three patients were all being placed on backboards by the rescue crews,” she said. “I made a quick check of the scene and headed into the wreckage to assist with the trapped Soldier.

“When I got to what was left of the helicopter, I looked down at the Soldier and called out,” Sergeant Clark said. The Soldier was pinned to the bottom of the wreckage with a broken ankle and apparent second-degree burns.

While crews worked to free the last Soldier from the bottom of the helicopter, Sergeant Clark made the call to send the first ambulance back with the three other accident victims. At the emergency room, doctors and medics waited for the injured Soldiers to arrive.

“I was off duty at the recreation tent when I heard the call go out on the radio,” said Maj. (Dr.) Tanya Leinicke, 407th EMEDS emergency physician. “When Sergeant Clark calls me, I know it’s serious, so I rushed back to the emergency room as fast as I could to get ready.”

The assembled staff ran through their checklists and made their final preparations for the patients.

“By the time I arrived, there were 20 to 30 people ready to assist,” Dr. Leinicke said. “The emergency room staff had prepared separate areas for each of the patients to be seen, and the other doctors, nurses and support staff were clearing the area for their arrival.

“You would think such a scene would be chaotic and noisy, but it wasn’t,” she said. “It was eerily quiet and organized. Our group had only arrived in theater a little over a week ago, but everyone was so well prepared and professional, like we’d been doing this together for years.”

At the crash site, the remaining Soldier showed signs of distress.

“We were still working to move the last Soldier when (her) vital signs started to slip,” Sergeant Clark said. “The pulse became weaker and the breathing more erratic. We administered some fluids and radioed the patient’s condition back to the ER.”

Frantically, the rescue crews tried to devise a way to free her from the wreckage. There was no way to get underneath the broken airframe, and the exposed undercarriage of the Blackhawk was too thick to cut through it effectively.

“When her pulse got low, we knew we had to do something,” Airman Byrum said. “So an Army firefighter jumped in there with me, and we pushed and pulled the wreckage around and finally managed to get her free for transport. We lifted her out of the wreckage and onto a backboard.”

Less than 30 minutes after the crash, all four injured Soldiers were in the emergency room. While free of the wreckage, each of the Soldiers had serious medical issues which required immediate medical attention.

“The first Soldier looked the worst, with a serious facial wound, but he was actually the least injured of the aircrew,” Dr. Leinicke said. “The other three Soldiers had broken bones and other injuries which we quickly worked to stabilize.”

Dr. Leinicke moved among each of the four hastily setup treatment areas, supervising care and watching the staff go about their work. Her lasting impression of the scene was one of care, compassion and professionalism -- from both the medics and the injured aircrew.

“These Soldiers were some of the bravest Soldiers I’ve ever been around,” Dr. Leinicke said. “Each one of them had a serious, painful injury, but each one of them was more concerned for the other members of their crew.

“In between treatments, the Soldiers would ask, ‘How’s the rest of the crew?’ and ‘Is everyone going to make it?’” she said. “None of them were concerned with themselves; they always worried more for their fellow Soldier.”

During the next few hours, the patients were cared for, stabilized and readied for aeromedical evacuation for more advanced care.

The following afternoon, a C-17 Globemaster III landed here and passed by the remaining wreckage of the broken Blackhawk. Less than 24 hours after surviving their fateful crash, the four Soldiers were placed aboard the aircraft and safely on their way to a hospital in Germany.

The cause of the accident is under review by Army safety officials. At the time of the incident, no hostile fire was reported in the area, officials said.

“It’s hard to believe after looking at the wreckage (that) those Soldiers will all be able to see their families again,” Dr. Leinicke said. “The rescue crews and (medics) really went above and beyond in saving them from the accident.

“Saving lives, and getting people safely home to their families is what we’re here for,” she said. “I think this is why all of us joined the Air Force -- to do what we did today.”