Army helicopter crash in Texas kills seven

BRUCEVILLE-EDDY, Texas -- An Army helicopter carrying seven soldiers crashed and burned in the fog yesterday after hitting a web of support wires on a TV transmission tower whose warning lights had been knocked out in a storm last week, officials said. Everyone aboard was killed.

The UH-60 Black Hawk, bound for Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, went down in a field about 30 miles northeast of Fort Hood. The fog was so thick when emergency crews arrived that they could not see more than halfway up the tower, authorities said.

The helicopter was headed to check out equipment being readied for use in Iraq, said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Withington, spokesman for the Fort Hood-based Fourth Infantry Division. The names of the victims, all from Fort Hood, were not immediately released.

Rock Eicke, who lives a quarter-mile from the crash site, said he was getting ready for work at about 7 a.m. when he was startled by a loud sound. He looked out his window and saw the helicopter hit the ground.

"All of the sudden I just saw a big ball of fire erupt from the ground and then boom, an explosion," Eicke said. "It was burning to the point that we couldn't have done anything."

The main part of the fuselage went down in a field about 200 to 300 yards from the tower, said Ken Brown, McLennan County constable.

Eicke and Brown said charred and smoldering pieces of the helicopter were scattered for hundreds of yards. Two of the bodies were seen inside the helicopter; others were lying in the field.

An investigation team was sent to the scene to determine the cause of the crash. Withington said the team's priority last night was "to secure the scene and recover the bodies." He said other Black Hawk helicopters from Fort Hood would pick up the bodies and return them to the post.

The helicopter hit several of 21 wires stabilizing the 1,800-foot tower, said Jerry Pursley, general manager of Waco-Temple-Killeen station KXXV, which owns the tower. The tower itself was not hit, he said. The tower's lights stopped working early last week after strong storms hit the area, Pursley said. He said the station notified the Federal Aviation Administration.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said the agency sent a notice last week to a computer database checked by pilots before they fly for information on potential hazards. Hundreds of such notices are issued every week, and they typically stay posted for 15 days, he said.

The crash occurred at the highest point in McLennan County, with 30 different towers within a 5-mile radius of where the helicopter went down, Sheriff's Deputy Shannon Mitchell said.

In November 2003, 17 soldiers were killed when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Iraq, apparently as a result of enemy fire.