Misplaced goggle case caused deadly Afghanistan helicopter crash, investigation finds

An October helicopter crash in Afghanistan that killed all 11 people onboard, including six U.S. service members, was caused by a night-vision goggle case stuck underneath the control yoke, according to a recently released investigation report.

“Our hearts go out to the family members and friends of those killed in this accident,” Brig. Gen. Patrick X. Mordente, who led the accident investigation board, said in an Air Force news release. “The investigation team pushed an intense fact-finding investigation to understand what happened on Oct. 2, 2015, and to honor all whose lives were cut short.”

{mosads}Prior to the crash, the helicopter had successfully flown from Bagram Airfield to Jalalabad, according to the release. At Jalalabad, the crew unloaded and reloaded the helicopter.

To make the offloading and onloading easier, the pilot raised the elevator on the tail by pulling back the yoke, the release says. After holding the yoke by hand for a while, the pilot decided to keep the yoke in place by propping it up with a hard-shell night-vision goggle (NVG) case. 

When the helicopter went to take off again, the case was still there, according to the release.

“Because the pilots were operating in darkened nighttime flying conditions and wearing NVGs, neither pilot recognized and removed the NVG case after loading operations were complete or during takeoff,” the release says.

Because the yoke was still jammed, the helicopter started to rapidly pitch upward. The co-pilot misidentified the problem as a trim malfunction and tried to fix the problem incorrectly, according to the release.

The rapid increase in pitch caused the helicopter to stall, and the pilots weren’t able to recover, according to the release.

“The aircraft impacted approximately 28 seconds after liftoff, right off the runway, within the confines of Jalalabad Airfield,” the release says. “The aircraft struck the ground, a perimeter wall and a guard tower, which resulted in all personnel onboard the aircraft being killed, along with three [Afghan Special Reaction Force] members assigned to the tower.”