2015 Eglin Air Force Base helicopter crash

On March 10, 2015, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter of the United States Army crashed off the coast of the Florida panhandle during a training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base, killing all eleven people on board. The helicopter was reported missing during foggy conditions at 8:30 PM. The helicopter was assigned to the 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion, based in Hammond, Louisiana.

Flight

The UH-60M helicopter was on a night training flight on March 10, 2015, when it disappeared. The Marines on board the helicopter were supposed to be dropped off by the helicopter and make their way ashore to simulate an over-the-beach landing. They had conducted a similar exercise earlier in the day. The helicopter flew into dense coastal fog that night and disappeared, approximately five minutes after takeoff.

Events

At approximately 1945 CST, CW4 Griffin was briefed on weather conditions prior to launch; the UH-60M piloted by CW4 Griffin and CW4 Strother (operating under callsign MOJO 69) took off with another LAARNG UH-60M at 2016 CST to perform the training exercise. CW4 Strother was recorded saying "Gee, it's dark as (expletive). That don't help none," shortly after takeoff. Once MOJO 69 crossed the shoreline, they entered what the investigation later called a Degraded Visual Environment at approximately 173 seconds after takeoff; the other UH-60M did not follow MOJO 69 into the fog, choosing instead to turn east and hover. Four seconds after one of the aircrew noted they were over the water, CW4 Griffin noted "Yeah, it's too dark to see the (expletive) water."

After entering the fogbank, both pilots of MOJO 69 started exhibiting signs of spatial disorientation, according to both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice transmission transcripts; MOJO 69 came to zero knots indicated airspeed and began flying backwards almost immediately after losing visual references. This deviated from the mission path, and CW4 Griffin, the pilot-in-command, failed to announce the deviation, providing evidence that he had become disoriented without realizing it. MOJO 69 turned on their position light and asked the other helicopter's flight crew to put on their position light as well; the other helicopter's crew radioed back that they could not see MOJO 69. During this time, MOJO 69 flew backwards for approximately 20 seconds before CW4 Griffin announced he was "coming back to the right... pulling back to the East", not realizing he had instead turned to the north. As MOJO 69 continued backwards, it turned right about the yaw axis and took a nose-up pitch attitude of 20 degrees.

Approximately 56 seconds after the first signs of spatial disorientation, CW4 Strother announced "we climbed up in it" and asked "where's our airspeed?"  Both pilots showed "increasingly erratic flight control inputs" and had "anxious verbal exchanges" at this point: CW4 Griffin commanded rapid climb and descent maneuvers and put the aircraft into a spin. CW4 Strother asked "G-Wayne, what are you doin'?" and asked him to climb; CW4 Griffin responded that he was "climbin' up" after approximately twenty seconds and CW4 Strother warned him about the spin five seconds after that.

Approximately 96 seconds after first showing spatial disorientation, CW4 Griffin asked CW4 Strother to take the controls,  but both pilots were unable to regain control of the aircraft. CW4 Griffin warned CW4 Strother to "watch the collective" twice and took the controls back 8 seconds after relinquishing them to CW4 Strother. CW4 Strother suggested engaging the autopilot, but this was not successful as the aircraft was already "outside the required flight parameters",  and CW4 Strother first warned CW4 Griffin they were "in a bad right turn", then to "watch your altitude, attitude G-Wayne attitude, level" in quick succession.

The last recorded cockpit voice transmission was CW4 Strother urging "climb, climb". MOJO 69 crashed into Santa Rosa Sound, approximately 125 seconds after entering the fog. Both the speed and angle of impact were not survivable.