CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A state-of-the-art attack helicopter that crashed in southern California last September killing two US Marines was brought down by a bird strike, investigators have concluded.
The AH-1W Cobra attack helicopter collided with a female red-tailed hawk at Camp Pendleton in California on Sept. 19, causing it to break into three parts in mid-air, according to a Marine report released to the San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday.
The hawk, which probably weighed about three pounds and had a wingspan of about four feet, hit the top of the helicopter, damaging the pitch change link.
Almost immediately, vibrations in the main rotor caused the rotor and top of the transmission to break away from the helicopter. The tail then fractured and the Cobra fell to the ground in three pieces.
The burning wreckage ignited a wildfire that burned more than 120 acres.
Both pilots, Capt. Jeffrey Bland, 37, and First Lt. Thomas Heitmann, 27, of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron 303, were likely killed instantly, the report concluded.
“The bird-aircraft strike event was likely unavoidable,” because drastic maneuvers to avoid the bird also could have caused a crash, the report found. The pilots had no chance of recovering control of the helicopter after the strike, investigators said.
“We were very shocked that something like that could happen,” Bland’s mother, Janet, told the Union-Tribune. “We know it happens to jets, with birds getting into the engines. But we never thought about a bird bringing down a helicopter.”
Among the report’s recommendations was that the Marine aircraft group look at redesigning the Cobra’s transmission fairings and the pitch change links, to make it less vulnerable to bird strikes.
The commanding general of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing earlier this year approved all findings of the report.