CDM reported on the recent incident in North Carolina where a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter damaged a civilian aid collection site in the NC Hurricane Helene impact area.
Initial reports on X were the aircraft belonged to the CT National Guard.
We contacted the CT National Guard yesterday and obtained an interim statement. North Carolina released the statement below today.
In a separate incident, a U.S. Army Chinook sent several civilians to the hospital when trying to land.
As a former USAF helicopter pilot and former US Army Guard medivac company officer, I can attest that this incident was unacceptable. This is a leadership and training issue. Obviously these pilots had no situational awareness.
Crews used to be trained intensely to evaluate landing sites from a variety of perspectives before attempting to land.
Besides the physical damage to the civilian volunteers, the reputational damage to the National Guard is immense.
There needs to be accountability, with the crew, and leadership.
The NC National Guard flies helecopters without the required identifier markings? What were the motivations of the pilots? Failure to address these issues makes this mea culpa suspect.
When they couldn't keep it quiet they had to punish the crew who were obviously in a no fly zone,
Attempting to land? Absolute BS. I saw the video. They were harrassing the volunteers. They should be court-marshalled and demoted, after some time in the brig.
33 years Active and Reserve. It takes an idiot or an evil person to see a field filled with tents, stacks of supplies and people all over the place and still try to land. The pilot, co-pilot and crew chief knew exactly what would happen when they flew over and even hovered over that field. If they didn't, they need to be grounded permanently. If this was deliberate, they need to be suspended.
Looks like they culturally appropriated the Lexington Minuteman. You'd think they could get their own mascot. Maybe a skunk.
There were minutemen in North Carolina as well Gordon.
or militiamen...