2005 Al-Anbar CH-53E crash

The 2005 Al-Anbar CH-53E crash refers to an aviation accident which occurred on January 26, 2005 when a United States Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed while ferrying U.S. military personnel in the Al-Anbar province of western Iraq, near the town of Ar-Rutbah. All thirty-one troops aboard the helicopter died in the crash, which made it the deadliest single incident for U.S. troops during the Iraq War. The accident took place while coalition forces were trying to secure the country ahead of the January 2005 Iraqi parliamentary election slated to take place later that month. The cause of the crash was determined to be the pilots becoming disoriented when they flew into a sandstorm.

Background

The CH-53E Super Stallion first entered service in 1981, becoming the largest and heaviest helicopter in the inventory of the United States military. Its three gas turbine engines gave the helicopter a superior amount of thrust capability and allowed it to become the workhorse of the U.S. Marine Corps, its primary operator.

U.S. forces in Iraq were also at the time facing increasing opposition to its previously unchallenged air superiority. Insurgent forces were increasingly targeting coalition aircraft, usually American helicopters, which provided ample targets. In November 2003, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallujah by a shoulder-fired missile, killing 16 American troops. In 2004, a total of 13 U.S. helicopters were brought down by enemy ground fire over Iraq. The increasing prevalence of ground fire led American forces to change their tactics, and helicopters began flying low and predominantly at night to avoid drawing fire.

Another threat to U.S. helicopters in Iraq was sand. The arid desert environment led many U.S. aircraft to become contaminated with large quantities of sand, affecting aircraft performance and overall mechanical well-being as well as posing a threat to pilots, who can be blinded during landing operations. At an October 2003 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Joel Hefley (R-CO), the chairman, said the typical Super Stallion returning from service in Afghanistan and Iraq was found to have 150 pounds of sand spread throughout its interior.

Accident

At 1:20 am AST on 26 January 2005 a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter (164536), code named Sampson 22 from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 (HMH-361) was ferrying a platoon of U.S. Marines from the 3rd Marine Division in Al-Anbar province, Iraq near the town of Ar-Rutbah, about seventy miles from the Jordanian border when it encountered a sandstorm.

Sampson 22's pilots, Captain Paul C. Alaniz, 32, and Captain Lyle L. Gordon, 31, became disoriented in the storm and did not realize the helicopter was banking to the left when it crashed into the ground. All of the four crew and 27 passengers, of which all but one were U.S. Marines, were killed. General John Abizaid, commander of US troops in Iraq, said the helicopter was on "a routine mission in support of the elections". The helicopter was carrying the troops to secure a polling site in preparation for the January 2005 Iraqi parliamentary elections set to take place four days from the day of the crash.