1994 — April 14, Two USAF F-15s Shoot down 2 USA Black Hawks, No. Iraq –15 U.S. of 26

–15US  Hall, A. Michael, My Son, and the Story of the Eagle Flight Detachment. 2002, 93-103.

–15US  Schmitt, Eric.  “Chief of Air Force Grounds 5 Pilots.” New York Times. 8-15-1995.

 

–26 total. Ladkin/Stuphorn. “Two Causal Analyses of the Black Hawk Shootdown.” 12-30-2003

–26 total.  Schmitt, Eric.  “Copter Deaths: Pentagon Finds Human Failure.” NYT, 7-1-1994.

–26    “     US GAO. Operation Provide Comfort…  November 1997, cover letter.

–26     “ Verhovek. “Air Force Officer…Acquitted in Downing of Army Aircraft.” NYT, 6-21-95

–26 total.  Wikipedia. “1994 Black Hawk shootdown incident.” 3-7-2012 modification.

 

Narrative Information

 

U.S. GAO Executive Summary: “On April 14, 1994, two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters and their crews assigned to Operation Provide Comfort were transporting U.S., United Kingdom, French, and Turkish military officers; Kurdish representatives; and a U.S. political advisor in northern Iraq. Concurrently, a U.S. Air Force Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft was flying over Turkey to provide airborne threat warning and control for Operation Provide Comfort aircraft, including the Black Hawk helicopters. The pilots of two U.S. F-15 fighters patrolling the area misidentified the Black Hawks as Iraqi Hind helicopters and shot them down, killing all 26 individuals aboard.

 

“As a result of questions raised by concerned individuals, including family members of those killed in the fratricide, the House Committee on National Security held a hearing in August 1995 to examine the causes of the incident, the resulting investigation by an Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation Board, and the judicial actions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that followed. After the hearing, the Committee asked GAO to determine if (1) the Board investigation of the shootdown had met its objectives, (2) the subsequent UCMJ investigations had followed established guidelines, and (3) Department of Defense and/or Air Force officials had improperly or unlawfully influenced these investigations. The Committee also requested that, during its investigation, GAO consider concerns of victims’ family members and others, including corrective actions taken to help prevent another accident.

 

“To do so, GAO interviewed over 160 individuals throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. They included family members; involved aircrews; Army and Air Force personnel who had served in Operation Provide Comfort; Board members, legal staff, and technical staff; and command personnel responsible for staff assigned to Operation Provide Comfort. GAO reviewed its previous work concerning Operation Provide Comfort and analyzed Board and UCMJ documentation, including 25 volumes and about 700 pieces of supporting evidence from the Board, thousands of classified documents, hearing and court-martial transcripts, and reports of corrective actions taken. However, the Department of Defense prevented GAO from interviewing key officials in the process, including the Convening Officials and the Inquiry and Investigating Officers. The Department of Defense voiced the belief that ‘any Congressional intrusion’ into the UCMJ deliberative process would compromise the independence of the military justice system. GAO did not evaluate the appropriateness of the disciplinary or corrective actions taken.” (U.S. GAO. Operation Provide Comfort: Review of U.S. Air Force Investigation of Black Hawk Fratricide Incident. Nov 1997, p. 2.).

 

Newspapers

 

July 1, 1994, NYT: “Washington, June 30 — Controllers aboard an Awacs radar plane failed to warn the pilots of American F-15 jets that two helicopters they were preparing to attack over northern Iraq in April were friendly, a classified Pentagon report says. The disclosure that some Awacs controllers knew the Blackhawk helicopters were American at the time other controllers were clearing the jets to attack added a new twist to the mystery of how one of the American military’s worst self-inflicted losses unfolded. Twenty-six people were killed in the mistaken downing of the two helicopters.

 

“Many of the early reports focused on the role of the fighter pilots, but as a result of the inquiry senior Pentagon officials will now have to consider the performance of the controllers on the radar plane, their superiors at Incirlik, Turkey, and senior commanders in Europe who set the rules of engagement. ‘Multiple human error was responsible for this horrible tragedy,’ said one senior Defense Department official.

 

“Defense Secretary William J. Perry and his top military and civilian Pentagon aides received a three-hour preliminary briefing on Wednesday on the closely held report, which some officials said would pin responsibility on at least eight people, including the two F-15 pilots….

 

“The inquiry affirmed initial findings that the fighter pilots misidentified the helicopters for Russian-built Iraqi Hind aircraft. It also found that an electronic system on one of the Blackhawk helicopters designed to identify aircraft as friend or foe was operating but emitting the wrong code for friendly aircraft, military officials here and in Europe who are familiar with the report’s findings said.

 

“The report also examines how the Awacs plane, a military version of a Boeing 707 with a rotating radar dome perched on the fuselage, failed. Inside the windowless Awacs, more than a dozen controllers and their supervisors peer at banks of radar scopes, tracking and monitoring aircraft. In this case, the report says, information some controllers had about the Blackhawks was not passed along to others who were in close contact with the fighter pilots….

 

“The report found that an Air Force F-15C, piloted by a captain flying in the lead position, shot down the first helicopter after his wingman and squadron commander, a lieutenant colonel, visually identified the helicopters as hostile. About 20 to 40 seconds later, according to witnesses on the ground, the second F-15 shot down the second Blackhawk as it tried to land….

 

“The Blackhawks were carrying two external fuel tanks, which made them resemble the Russian-made Hinds and “leave ample room for confusion,” one senior Air Force official said. No Iraqi helicopters, however, have ventured into the northern zone since a flight ban was established there, and the Blackhawks were not acting in a threatening way….

 

“Most baffling of all…was why the Awac controllers who had information on at least three radar scopes failed to tell the F-15 pilots that the helicopters were friendly.” (Schmitt, Eric. “Copter Deaths: Pentagon Finds Human Failure.” New York Times, 7-1-1994.)

 

June 21, 1995, NYT: “Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., June 20 — The only person to face a court-martial in the accidental shooting of two Army helicopters over Iraq last year was acquitted on all counts today, a finding that further clouded rather than resolved the question of who was responsible for an incident that killed 26 people. The verdict, issued by a 10-officer Air Force tribunal here, left both the 29-year-old defendant, Capt. Jim Wang of the Air Force, and distraught relatives of the victims calling for an intensive Congressional investigation into the shooting.

 

“In Washington, Defense Secretary William J. Perry rejected complaints from some of the relatives that no one was being held accountable for the deaths, noting that seven officers had received letters of reprimand or admonishment for the incident. ‘No one has been sent to jail, that is true,’ Mr. Perry said. ‘But many officers’ careers were very adversely affected by this.’

 

“After deliberating for about five hours over two days, the military tribunal acquitted Captain Wang on three counts of dereliction of duty. Captain Wang, the senior director of an Airborne Warning and Control System, or Awacs, a flying radar center, was accused of failing to warn two F-15C Eagle fighter pilots that they had visually misidentified two Blackhawk helicopters as Russian-made Iraqi helicopters….

 

“The incident, on April 14, 1994, occurred while the fighter pilots were patrolling a so-called no-flight zone above Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, over which Iraqi military planes had been ordered excluded after the Persian Gulf war.

 

“Charges of negligent homicide were brought against one of the fighter pilots, but were dismissed. Prosecutors, who had dropped charges against four other military officers, argued that Captain Wang was most responsible for the deaths because he had failed to issue a warning that could have averted the catastrophe.

 

“But Captain Wang and his supporters, including officers who established a defense fund for him, argued that he had neither given the command to shoot nor pulled the trigger, and said that he was being made a scapegoat for the whole affair by his superiors. In an interview today, Captain Wang reiterated his assertion that the helicopters did not appear on his radar just before the shooting and that he had believed they had already landed….

 

“In arguments before the eight-man, two-woman jury, all with ranks of major and above, prosecutors presented two videotapes of the radar screen Captain Wang was watching showing green dots, which show up when signals are received from a friendly aircraft. Captain Wang’s lawyers said the dots did not necessarily appear as green on the captain’s screen. But Maj. Robert Coacher, a prosecutor, told the jury in closing arguments on Monday: “It’s not a mirage. It’s on tape. It’s documented. I.F.F. shows up on that scope and it shows up in a sufficient amount of time for him to do something about it, and he fails to do that,” he said. I.F.F., standing for “Identify Friend or Foe,” are the signals that determine an aircraft to be friendly….” (Verhovek. “Air Force Officer is Acquitted in Downing of Army Aircraft.” New York Times, 6-21-1995.)

 

Aug 14, 1995, NYT: “Washington, Aug, 14 — The Air Force plans to announce on Tuesday that it is effectively ending the careers of at least seven officers who were initially given slaps on the wrist for their role in the downing of two Army helicopters over Iraq last year. The unusual action comes as the result of a growing anger by lawmakers, surviving family members and even senior military officials that no one had been held accountable for the incident, which killed 26 people, including 15 Americans. This feeling intensified after the acquittal in June of the only person to face a court-martial in the accidental shooting, Capt. Jim Wang.

 

“Although the seven officers were reprimanded months ago for their involvement in the incident, several have received favorable evaluations, awards and choice assignments. But responding to the growing pressure, the Air Force is grounding the two F-15 fighter pilots who mistakenly shot down the American helicopters and three officers on the radar plane who failed to prevent the accident. The five — including Captain Wang, whom a military jury in Oklahoma cleared of all criminal charges in June — will be grounded for at least three years and will most likely be assigned to nonflying jobs.

 

“Angry that officers who were reprimanded for their role in the incident were promoted or awarded plum jobs, Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman, the Air Force Chief of Staff, wrote scathing “letters of evaluation” for the permanent files of the two F-15 pilots, three radar-plane controllers and two generals overseeing the operation in northern Iraq, citing their poor judgment and failure to uphold Air Force standards. Such unusual criticism from the Air Force’s top officer effectively dooms the officers’ careers. “Their chances for promotion now are essentially zero,” a senior Pentagon official said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them retire.”….” (Schmitt, Eric. “Chief of Air Force Grounds 5 Pilots.” New York Times. 8-15-1995.)

 

Sources

 

Ladkin, Peter B. and Jorn Stuphorn. “Two Causal Analyses of the Black Hawk Shootdown during Operation Provide Comfort.” Paper presented at 8^th Australian Workshop on Safety Critical Systems and Software (SCS’03), Adelaide, Australia. Published at Australian Computer Society, Inc. Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology, Vol. 33, 2003, P. Lindsay & T. Cant, editors. Accessed 3-21-2012 at:  http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&rlz=1W1GGLL_en&gs_sm=12&gs_upl=2203l2203l0l3062l1l1l0l0l0l0l172l172l0.1l1l0&q=cache:GO3-f7csJ_QJ:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.59.6549&rep=rep1&type=pdf+%22Two+Causal+Analyses+of+the+Black+Hawk+Shootdown+during+Operation+Provide+Comfort&ct=clnk

 

Schmitt, Eric. “Chief of Air Force Grounds 5 Pilots.” New York Times. 8-15-1995. Accessed 3-21-2012 at: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/15/us/chief-of-air-force-grounds-5-pilots.html

 

Schmitt, Eric. “Copter Deaths: Pentagon Finds Human Failure.” New York Times, 7-1-1994.   http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/01/world/copter-deaths-pentagon-finds-human-failure.html

 

United States General Accounting Office. Operation Provide Comfort: Review of U.S. Air Force Investigation of Black Hawk Fratricide Incident (GAO/OSI-98-4).  Washington, DC:  GAO, November 1997. Accessed 3-21-2012 at: http://www.gao.gov/archive/1998/os98004.pdf

 

Verhovek, Sam Howe. “Air Force Officer is Acquitted in Downing of Army Aircraft.” New York Times, 6-21-1995. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/21/us/air-force-officer-is-acquitted-in-downing-of-army-aircraft.html

 

Additional Reading

 

Hall, Allen L. Michael, My Son, and the Story of the Eagle Flight Detachment. Vantage Press, 2002.