Yes, it was a bad day but I don't like the spin that the media put on the story. This is not an Iraq story, it is a Super Stallion story. Those things are dangerous. I found this article from August, 2000 which was written after a Super Stallion crash.
Back in 2000, there was no reason to spin the story any way except as dangerous equipment. Now it becomes a "death in Iraq" story. Too bad. There's probably a real story about why they are still flying.
But the MH-53, one of the Western world's largest helicopters, has a history of lethal mechanical failures and has been grounded at least once since it began service in the early 1980s. It is also one of a number of military aircraft that critics have denounced as part of a aging fleet, with design origins that date back to the 1960s.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dawn Cutler said Thursday's crash represents the first MH-53 accident this year. The exact number of crew fatalities in accidents involving the helicopter was unavailable Thursday, but at least 30 have been killed, including those on Thursday, and 15 wounded since 1984, according to news reports.
In June of 1996, the U.S. Navy grounded 200 of its H-53 Super Stallion and MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters after a crash killed a crew of four at Sikorsky's testing facility in Connecticut. Sikorsky recommended the aircraft be grounded following the crash so inspectors could examine the parts that connect the rotor blades to the body of the helicopter.
The CH-53 Super Stallion, a helicopter similar to the Sea Dragon, was grounded twice - once in 1984 following a crash in North Carolina that killed six Marines and again in 1987 after five Marines died in a crash in California, United Press International reported.
After the Super Stallions were grounded, the Secretary of the Navy ordered flight restrictions to be placed on the CH-53 because of design deficiencies found during an investigation of the aircraft, UPI reported.
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