By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

According to a report made by Staff Sgt. Eric Summers of the Joint Task Force-Bravo, published this week, a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from the 1st Battalion 228th Aviation Regiment during a mission in Costa Rica had mechanical problems and should have landed in an area open in Liberia* in the province of Guanacaste.

"The Blackhawk was in en-route to begin a mission to support the USNS Comfort when a malfunction onboard led the pilots to do a precautionary landing near a riverbank," said Sgt. Summers in his report. "Upon further examination, the Blackhawk crew discovered that the aircraft's transmission was broken and the craft would not be safe to fly."

The 1-228th AVN had two dilemmas. One, determining how to move the aircraft out of the field and back to the mission operations center at Liberia Airport, before the high tide floods the bank and field, potentially submerging the aircraft. Second, how to get the aircraft back home to Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras.

"We did kind of a crisis action planning group to help them work through the issues down there," said U.S. Army Maj. Billy Blue III, 1-228 AVN executive officer, and 1-228 AVN acting commander at the time of the incident. "We made sure that any parts and pieces they needed were pushed to Costa Rica quickly."

The crisis planning team, due to time limitations from high tide and the remote location of the aircraft, decided to use a CH-47 Chinook, also from the 1-228 AVN that was supporting the USNS Comfort, to carry the Blackhawk back to Liberia airport.

Upon arrival in Liberia, the 1-228 AVN had three options of returning the broken aircraft home.

"There were three options dealing with having to repair the aircraft on-site," said U.S. Army Billy Blue "One was to send everyone down there and just do the repairs there. The other was to go take the transmission out of the aircraft and bring it back to Soto Cano, do some build-up work here and take it back to Liberia. The third option was to use strategic airlift."

According to Sgt. Summers's report, after deliberating the options, the 1-228 AVN commander, LT. Col. Aaron Elliot, and Joint Task Force-Bravo commander, Col. Steven Barry, decided that bringing the aircraft back to Soto Cano AB would work best for the unit.

"First was funding, if all the courses of action were in the ballpark of what we estimated," explained U.S. Army Billy Blue "Then it came to what gave the unit the most flexibility to control potentially unforeseen problems, maybe things on the aircraft need to be fixed that we didn't know about at the time."

"I think they made their decision based on what would give the organization the most flexibility without incurring an exorbitant cost. Because if they would have found an issue down there that wasn't planned for it could consist of cost an extra 30 days of TDY, ramp fees, and all kinds of expenditures," Billy Blue continued.

Deciding to bring the aircraft back using strategic airlift, brings a new multitude of tasks and coordination the regiment couldn't accomplish alone. However, working with the joint members at Soto Cano made it a reality.

Members of the 612th Air Base Squadron, 480th Military Police Company, and JTF-B staff all offered helping hands to coordinate with U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) and return the aircraft home.

"I got word from my director that strategic air was going to be needed to get the UH-60 from Liberia back to here," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Wendy Monroe, J4 officer in charge of ports and plans. "So I had the ports and planned NCO reach out to TRANSCOM to provide us an estimate, and from there they provided contacts at SOUTHCOM, and Mr. Paul Lockett at SOUTHCOM helped me out, and we got the ball rolling."

After coordination between the several units was completed and requirements identified, a C-17 Globemaster III secured to transport the helicopter from Costa Rica to Honduras.

"Once I got the strategic air coordinated I had to brief Col. Barry on the mission plan and from there coordinate with 228 to get us lifted out to Liberia," Monroe said. "A team in place at Liberia got the aircraft prepped, the 612th ABS got the joint inspection done, and 480th MP Company helped us out with the HAZMAT certification. So lots of players were involved in getting this back."

After the preparations and inspections completed, the C-17 picked up the crew and returned the broken aircraft home.

"We go the aircraft back here, and 228th had members come out to help unload the aircraft," Monroe said.

More information on Joint Task Force-Bravo may be found at its site here.*



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Have you seen any of the U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters flying in Costa Rica?  We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to: news@amcostarica.com

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