Witness describes Black Hawk crash

ENUMCLAW, Wash. — Charles Van Hoof Jr. was one of the first people to respond to a Black Hawk helicopter from Fort Lewis that crashed on a wooded hillside, killing the three crewmembers aboard.

Van Hoof said he arrived at the crash scene to find that the UH-60 Black Hawk had hit a large tree and crashed about 400 feet up the mountain behind his home.

“When they hit that tree, it was over,” Van Hoof said Friday night. “If they had went another 20 feet higher, it would have gone over everything.”

Fort Lewis identified the soldiers Saturday as Sgt. Thomas L. Clarkston Jr., 25, Chief Warrant Officer Patrick J. Paige, 32, and Chief Warrant Officer James E. Whitehead, 33.

All were members of the 4th Squadron, 6th Air Cavalry Regiment, which has been at Fort Lewis for about a year.

Clarkston’s family said Friday they’d been notified that he was among those killed.

Clarkston, of Liberty, Ind., was the crew chief of the Black Hawk, overseeing navigation and other duties. He began service in May 2002 and was stationed at Fort Lewis in July 2005.

His survivors include his wife, Teffiny, and a 14-month old son.

Paige was an Army aviator from Alabama. He had been on active duty since November 1995, Fort Lewis officials said.

Whitehead was also an aviator and native of Hawaii. He began active duty in August 1992.

Both Paige and Whitehead arrived at Fort Lewis in August 2005, the Army said. Their hometowns were not immediately available.

The crew had been on a scheduled night training mission Thursday when the helicopter crashed on the 1,835-foot Mount Peak.

A team of safety investigators from the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., was called in to try to find out what went wrong.

Van Hoof, 42, said he heard the helicopter fly low over the area.

“It was so low that it shook the house,” he said, noting that it was lower than normal military training flights through the area.

“It went over, and then about two seconds later, I heard it hitting the trees, thrashing and making a lot of noise,” Van Hoof said. “And then there was an explosion and a red flash.”

He called 911 and headed up the steep, snowy mountain with his wife. Armed with flashlights and blankets, they found bits of fiberglass and a strong smell of diesel fuel.

The site looked like a bomb had gone off, Van Hoof said. The Black Hawk had sheared a path off the top of the pines before dropping to the ground.

Only the copter’s tailpiece was recognizable. The front of the aircraft was “totally gone, just pieces everywhere,” Van Hoof said.

The couple later led King County sheriff’s deputies to the crash site. Searchers found the first two bodies quickly, then discovered the third Friday morning.

The fatal Army helicopter crash was one of the first in Washington state since October 1983, when another Black Hawk burst into flames south of Mount Rainier National Park, killing all four aboard.

A UH-1 Huey medical evacuation helicopter from Fort Drum, N.Y., lost power and crashed at the Yakima Training Center in February. One crew member broke a leg and two others were slightly injured.

Fort Lewis is home to an estimated 130 Black Hawks, Chinooks, OH-58 Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.

The Black Hawk helicopter became well known in 2001 after the release of the movie “Black Hawk Down.”