BLACK HAWK MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING
2 Choppers alight near Tower City, take off
by Lisa Price
TOWER CITY – Black Hawk down, and right back up again.
People in the Tower City area, especially near the Bendigo Airport on Route 325, turned curious eyes to the sky Monday morning when not one, but two UH-60 “Black Hawk” helicopters made unplanned landings on a runway there.
According to Lt. Col. Christopher T. Cleaver, public affairs for the Army National Guard, Fort Indiantown Gap, the first chopper landed after a warning light clicked on in the cockpit.
“Nothing is taken for granted when a warning light goes on; there’s a checklist of things to do in response,” Cleaver said. “The first thing to do is make a precautionary landing at the first available place.”
Monday morning, about 10:0 a.m., that place was Bendigo Aiport. Cleaver said that the Black Hawk had taken off from Muir Field at Indiantown Gap carrying three Army National Guard crew members on a routine training mission.
A second Black Hawk, this one carrying a maintenance crew, was also in the area and landed at Bendigo to check the systems on the first unit. Shortly before noon, both helicopters took off and returned to Indiantown Gap, according to Cleaver.
Cleaver said that Muir Field is one of the busiest airports in the area, with 77,000 takeoffs and landing every year. Each year, he said, aircraft based there make 50 precautionary landings.
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Article from the Pottsville Republican and Herald, 29 July 2003, via Newspapers.com.
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