WASHINGTON - The number of fatal U.S. military helicopter crashes in Iraq has spiked in recent weeks, fitting a wartime pattern of more frequent accidental and combat crashes during winter months.
The crash of an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter near Mosul on Friday, killing two pilots, was the third in the past three weeks. That's half the average number lost in each year of the war, which started in March 2003 and has even seen an undisclosed number of helicopters inadvertently downed by unmanned U.S. drones.
Yet, the overall safety record of Army and Marine Corps helicopters has been remarkably good, military officials and private analysts say, given the enormous amount of flying in often-harsh conditions.
Army helicopters alone have logged nearly 1 million flight hours since the war began, with the UH-60 Black Hawk accounting for nearly one-third of the total, according to Army Aviation Warfighting Center records.
A total of seven Black Hawks have crashed during the war. The second-most heavily used Army helicopter, the AH-64 Apache, has crashed four times and the No. 3 helicopter, the Kiowa Warrior, has gone down seven times. Some were accidents, others were caused by hostile fire and some are still under investigation.
Military.com
The crash of an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter near Mosul on Friday, killing two pilots, was the third in the past three weeks. That's half the average number lost in each year of the war, which started in March 2003 and has even seen an undisclosed number of helicopters inadvertently downed by unmanned U.S. drones.
Yet, the overall safety record of Army and Marine Corps helicopters has been remarkably good, military officials and private analysts say, given the enormous amount of flying in often-harsh conditions.
Army helicopters alone have logged nearly 1 million flight hours since the war began, with the UH-60 Black Hawk accounting for nearly one-third of the total, according to Army Aviation Warfighting Center records.
A total of seven Black Hawks have crashed during the war. The second-most heavily used Army helicopter, the AH-64 Apache, has crashed four times and the No. 3 helicopter, the Kiowa Warrior, has gone down seven times. Some were accidents, others were caused by hostile fire and some are still under investigation.
Military.com
