Early in the morning on Saturday, January 20, a U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter on a routine training mission at the National Training Center at Fort Iwin in California crashed killing both the pilot and co-pilot. Lt. Col. Jason S. Brown, a spokesman for the Army at the Pentagon soaid the the two had been killed. The crash is under investigation and next-of-kin notifications are ongoing. The Apache gunship was flying a "readiness training exercise" when it had crashed. The chopper was attached to the Army's 4th Infantry Division based out of Fort Carson in Colorado. The crash occured hours after the government had its shutdown, but that is said not to be a factor in the crash. The Apache is armed with missles, rocket pods and a 30mm chain gun.
In November, Maj. Gen. William Gaylor, the head of Army aviation told the Congress, pilots' flight hours were at their lowest levels in 30 years after years of budget cuts. Now, Defense Secretary Jim Mttis said the military advantage over the likes of Russia and China have "eroded." He also blamed the budget cuts. These two are complaing because last year we saw twice as many U.S. troops be killed in non-combat aviation crashes compared to the year before.
How do you think the crash happened? Was it a mechanical error or a opperator error?
I believe that the crash happened because of the pilot. Since the flight hours of pilots have gone down, I believe it was a problem with the pilot messing up.
Do you believe that the military advantange of the U.S. over countries like Russia and China have "eroded?"
I do believe that our military isn't the top dog in the world anymore. I also believe that the rest of the world kind of mocks us because of all of the other problems that we are more into like the #metoo movement and all of the things that our congress can't decide on forcing us into a govenment shutdown.
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Well done Alex! Glad to see your a Yankees fan!
I dont know why they crashed it could have been one or the other you never know. I think that it is just a coincodense that the wreck happend after the goverment shutdown.
I think there may have been some malfunctions with the helicopter system or maybe one of the pilots had a medical issue and couldn't fly. I believe that our military isn't the best anymore, but it's still one of the top militaries in the world.
I agree with you that our military is not the best anymore, and that our military is still one of the top militaries in the world. I don't believe that the pilots had any medical issues because other people would have known and not let them do the training.
It had to have been a major malfuntion but there does come the arguement that these machines are made at the best quality that we can achieve so it must've been one of the pilot's in misdirections or poor knowledge in education.
I agree with you, the poor knowledge is a very good idea for why this happened. I don't believe it would have been misdirections, but there is always the chance that something like that could happen.
For an entire military plane to crash there had to have been some major malfuntion whether with the aircraft or its pilot. If it was mechanical i'd think they would've found something wrong by now. But since both pilots are dead there's no true saying. It was probably a problem with one of the pilots. I think they may have gone away somewhat but not necesarrily completely.
I think the crash was a mechanical error considering the fact that they were test flying the helicopter and the pilot knew what he was doing. I dont beleive our military is as good as it once was and probably could be better. Russia and China probably do have a better miltary than us at this point.
Although it could have been a mechanical error, I disagree with you becuase I feel that the lack of training that the pilots are getting caused this crash. I agree with you when you said that Russia and China have gotten better militaries.
I think that it was probably opperator error. The reason I think this is because those machines are suppose to have no mechanical errors and are constently going through mechanical checks. I don't think the advantage has been eroded but I do think those other countries and other countries for that matter have gotten stronger.
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