Risk Management Magazine

The weather forecast was typical of a warm, North Carolina spring afternoon — visibility was great with 10 miles and a 30 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms. We had based our mission operations out of a local airport. As lead aircraft in a flight of three Black Hawks, we were completing our last leg of what was considered a routine infiltration/exfiltration mission.

Before becoming an aviator, I served as a flight engineer on a CH-47D Chinook. Our mission that summer day was a simple, routine night vision goggle flight with a couple of very experienced pilots on the controls.

It was just another routine training flight in the local Fort Liberty flying area. We were conducting a night team flight supporting the local Air Force combat controllers in what is known as the Northern Training Area (NTA). All was well and, upon the conclusion of our mission, we landed to kick out the left-seaters to give the guys a face-to-face debrief on how it went for both sides.