From: David Lednicer <dave@amiwest.com>
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military
Subject: Re: Blackhawk black spots
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 15:39:42 +0100

David Bromage wrote:
> The July 1999 issue of Australasian Science has an interesting article
> about the alarming number of injuries sustained by occupants of
> Blackhawks. The cause of the multitude of musculoskeletal injuries appears
> to be bad ergonomics, and blind spots in the loadmaster's field of view
> when seated.

	Given a choice between being in a crashing Black Hawk and a crashing
Huey, I will pick the Black Hawk any day.  Stroking seats, antiplow keel
beams, real landing gear, crushable floor structure and posts to keep
the ceiling from going to the floor all make it a much safer helicopter
in a crash.

	I was saw a video of the remains of a Black Hawk that had flown through
the walls of two brick hangars before coming to a rest.  The airframe
was totaled, but the crew and passengers all walked away.

	What might be happening is what happened in Grenada.  During the
initial assault, the army ripped out the passenger seats from the Black
Hawks, so that more troops could be fit in.  They also were scared of
the stabilators going hard over from combat damage, so they had the
circuit breakers on them pulled.  This meant they came in for landing
very nose up - the first few to come in got shot down and the passengers
didn't have the stroking seats to help absorb the crash loads.

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