Black Hawk crash leaves no survivors

SEATTLE – Part of a rotor and the smell of jet fuel led searchers to the scattered wreckage of a Black Hawk helicopter from Fort Lewis that crashed on a heavily wooded mountainside southeast of Seattle, killing all three aboard.

The last of the three crewmembers was found Friday, a day after the UH-60 Black Hawk medium utility helicopter crashed during a scheduled night training mission, the Army said.

“It was in the area where the other bodies were found as well,” Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a spokesman from the Army post south of Tacoma, told a news conference Friday.

Autopsies were planned, he said.

The soldiers were members of the 4th Squadron, 6th Air Cavalry Regiment, which has been at Fort Lewis for about a year, said David Kuhns, a civilian spokesman with the post. Williams said they were scheduled to go to Iraq next year.

The Army on Friday notified the family of Sgt. Thomas Clarkston Jr., 25, of Liberty, Ind., that he was among those killed, his father, Thomas Clarkston, told the Associated Press.

Clarkston was the crew chief of the Black Hawk, overseeing navigation and other duties, his father said. Clarkston’s survivors include his wife of four years, Teffiny, and a 14-month old son.

The elder Clarkston, who spent 25 years in the Army, recalled pinning the sergeant’s stripes on his son.

“He had been very successful in his career,” the father said. “He was well liked and well thought of by his unit and his peers.”

Kuhns said Friday night he could not confirm that identification. The Army did not plan to release any names of the dead until 24 hours after relatives had been notified, he said, adding that meant additional information would likely not be available until “at least Saturday.”

Investigators from the Army’s Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., were called in to try to find what caused the crash.

“It will be a lengthy process, but we aren’t going to put a time limit on safety,” Williams said.

King County sheriff’s deputies received a report about 8:20 p.m. Thursday that residents outside of Enumclaw had heard what they believed was an aircraft crash, said Deputy Rodney Chinnick.

“People living in the area heard it go down,” he said.

The department immediately checked with helicopter operators, such as the medical airlift service and the Army. The Army confirmed it had an aircraft that hadn’t returned, he said.

The densely wooded terrain, combined with darkness, slowed search efforts and made it difficult to spot any wreckage from the air, Chinnick said.

“It’s the kind of remote site that’s hard to get to,” Kuhns said.

Sheriff’s deputies and civilians found the crash site about 10 p.m. Thursday on the south side of 1,835-foot Mount Peak near the King County Fairgrounds, about 45 miles southeast of Seattle and 30 miles east of Fort Lewis, Chinnick said.

The crash site was located after a deputy who is also a pilot for the county’s helicopter smelled fuel and found a piece of a helicopter rotor during the ground search, Chinnick said.

Two crewmembers were confirmed dead at the scene, he said.

About 20 deputies and dozens of civilian search and rescue volunteers joined in the effort to find the third crew member.

The Army was in command of the effort and the sheriff’s office was providing support.

Officials warned that the site was off-limits to anyone except investigators, apparently after personnel reported that people were attempting to enter the crash site.

The Army began using UH-60 Black Hawks in 1979 to provide air assault, medical evacuations, and special operations support for combat operations.

In August, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq’s Anbar province, killing two and injuring four.