DATE: Thursday, July 10, 1997               TAG: 9707100502

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT MOONEYHAM ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: FORT BRAGG                        LENGTH:   89 lines

INVESTIGATORS FACE TOUGH TASK IN FORT BRAGG HELICOPTER CRASH

Investigators will struggle to determine the cause of a helicopter crash that killed eight Fort Bragg soldiers because so little of the wreckage is intact, Army officials said Wednesday.

``It's quite a puzzle, the way they described it,'' said Maj. Gary Keck, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division.

``It's pretty much gone.''

The UH-60L Black Hawk crashed Tuesday in the rolling woodlands of Fort Bragg less than 500 yards from a blacktop road that traverses the military post but more than 10 miles from the command headquarters and other major Army installations here.

Army officials said the soldiers were involved in a reconnaissance mission.

Keck said several photographers were on board to take photos of training areas on the post. The photos were to have been used to allow soldiers from other military installations or even other allied countries plan for training exercises.

There were no obvious explanations for why the helicopter crashed.

Army officials said skies were clear about 2:15 p.m., when the aircraft went down. Also, the helicopter was not taking part in any ``live-fire'' exercises and was flying by itself.

By 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, investigators from the U.S. Army Safety Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., were at the crash site sifting through the rubble.

There was little of the helicopter left to see.

Only the engine and rotor head were distinguishable in a charred heap that sat among about four dozen blackened pine trees, burned by the inferno that engulfed the helicopter when it crashed.

The tops of seven or eight trees had been sheared off about 60 feet from the ground by the helicopter blades.

The three-man investigative team will not have the benefit of any flight recorder data since the helicopters do not carry so-called ``black boxes.''

Keck said he was unsure if the two pilots aboard the Black Hawk put out a distress call before it went down.

But he did say he expected the burned aircraft and the lack of any obvious cause of the crash to present problems for investigators.

``The aircraft burned pretty much completely,'' Keck said.

Although the Black Hawk was plagued with safety problems in the 1980s, Army officials said the helicop But Keck said the Black Hawk had its best safety record ever last year. He said the helicopter that crashed was no more than seven years old.

``There's no systematic problem. There's nothing that we know of that would happen to cause this,'' Keck said.

Still, he said the unit which the helicopter belonged to had been grounded, mainly out of concern for the soldiers' emotional well-being. Twenty-four helicopters are assigned to the unit.

Col. Jim Rabon, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division's Aviation Brigade, said he and all soldiers assigned to the brigade were struggling with the tragedy.

``The loss of any soldier's life is a tragedy. The loss of any aircraft is a tragedy,'' Rabon said while looking over the crash site.

Late Wednesday, the Army still had not released the identifies of the soldiers who were killed. However, an Ohio man said that his parents had been told that his brother, 1st Lt. Tim Alspach, 39, was aboard the helicopter.

Also, a Richmond, Ind., family says Spc. Jack Tucker, 25, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, was killed in the crash.

Army rescue workers did not remove the remains of three of the victims until shortly after noon Wednesday.

The three were under the wreckage, and investigators did not want their remains removed until the crash could be photographed and other information documented.

The remains of the five others on board were removed about 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The bodies were taken to Womack Army Hospital on Fort Bragg, and were expected to be flown to Dover Air Force Base this morning.

There, doctors will use dental records to positively identify each soldier.

Keck said the Army would not release the soldiers' identities until that process is completed, sometime later this week.

He said a memorial service for the soldiers will be held at Fort Bragg but not until the identification process is completed. No date has been set for a service. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Army Capt. Michael R. Pandol surveys the wreckage of the UH-60L

Black Hawk helicopter that crashed Tuesday in the rolling woodlands

of Fort Bragg, N.C., killing eight soldiers of the 82nd Airborne

Division.

Lt. Col. Rick Spearmanm, a public affairs officer with the XVIII

Airborne Corps, talks to members of the news media near the crash

site. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT MILITARY ACCIDENT HELICOPTER FATALITIES

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