Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994 TAG: 9404180157
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
That preliminary assessment suggests that the helicopters' signal systems may have malfunctioned or been turned off, and thus could be partially to blame for the tragedy that cost all 26 people on the choppers their lives.
Even so, such a system failure alone is insufficient to explain why the tragedy occurred, Defense Secretary William Perry said Friday.
``There are eight or nine different procedures or systems, any one of which could have prevented this accident, so ... it's a mystery to us at this stage why it could have happened, but we will get an answer to it,'' Perry said.
Human error by the F-15C pilots also is a key factor, Perry said during one of his many appearances on TV news shows Friday: ``There were human errors not only by the pilots, but perhaps by some of the other aircraft involved in this, in particular the AWACS. ... We can't distinguish at this point between the role the human errors played and the role that procedural errors played.''
The AWACS airborne radar control system was supposed to control both U.S. jets and the Black Hawk helicopters over northern Iraq.
Perry warned that ``if individuals are found to be culpable, we will discipline them, but ... we will not rush to judgment. Individuals who are suspected of misconduct will be thoroughly advised of their rights and those rights will be protected throughout the investigation.''
Pilots of the two F-15C fighter jets reportedly beamed their ``identification friend or foe'' system at the helicopters as required; that should have triggered an automatic electronic response identifying the choppers as ``friendly,'' said Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
``IFF interrogation was conducted and no friendly response was received,'' Shalikashvili told a Pentagon press conference.
An official investigative team arrived at the crash site Friday, but Perry cautioned that ``it's not going to be clear what went wrong for several weeks yet.'' The team will study voice transmission tapes from the fighters and the helicopters as well as electronic records from an AWACS surveillance plane that was nearby.
Both fighter pilots made two passes over the helicopters seeking to verify their identities visually, Shalikashvili confirmed.
But both pilots mistakenly thought the U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were Soviet-made Iraqi ``Hind'' helicopters violating a ``no-fly zone'' established in north Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The F-15C pilots reported their intent to fire to the nearby AWACS aircraft. - Aircraft Warning and Control System, which functions like an airborne air traffic control radar unit. It is unclear whether the AWACS authorized the decision, but officials said such authority is not required. The warplanes did not attempt to make radio contact with the helicopters, Perry said, but he added that normal procedures do not require such contact. The 26 dead included 15 Americans, three Turks, two British, one French and five Kurds; all but the Kurds were military officers.
The first U.S. victim identified by the Pentagon was 2nd Lt. Laura Ashley Piper, 25, from Venice, Fla.
Meanwhile, all U.S. air patrols over the ``no-fly zone'' were suspended for one day Friday while safety procedures were reinforced. AWACS units patrolled the sky and could have called in fighter jets if needed however, officials said.
by CNB