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A Black Hawk helicopter performing training exercises on the Texas A&M campus crashed on takeoff Monday afternoon, killing one and injuring four Army guardsman on board.
No students were on the aircraft, but the jarring accident gripped many in the Aggie family, especially as news spread that the person who died was a 2008 A&M graduate -- Zachary Cook.
Col. William Meehan, a spokesman for the Texas Army National Guard, said the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade based out of Austin had been shuttling members of Texas A&M's Corps of Cadets between College Station and Camp Swift, a former prisoner of war camp in Bastrop County. The exercise was one they've done with the ROTC program for more than 20 years without incident, he said.
Meehan said the guard unit -- which recently returned from serving in Iraq and is "highly decorated" -- was on one of five helicopters being used to transfer 190 students in what's called the Winter Field Training Exercise on Duncan Field just off George Bush Drive.
A photographer for the local paper was on scene, photographing the Blackhawks for an ROTC article, and caught the entire crash with his camera including when the helo hit the ground. (Pictures are @ the first link.) He was stuck by debris, but not seriously injured.
I tried to get some pictures last night, but the combination of low light, being forced to shoot from a distance, and way too much crap in the way, didn't allow me to get useful pictures.
No students were on the aircraft, but the jarring accident gripped many in the Aggie family, especially as news spread that the person who died was a 2008 A&M graduate -- Zachary Cook.
Col. William Meehan, a spokesman for the Texas Army National Guard, said the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade based out of Austin had been shuttling members of Texas A&M's Corps of Cadets between College Station and Camp Swift, a former prisoner of war camp in Bastrop County. The exercise was one they've done with the ROTC program for more than 20 years without incident, he said.
Meehan said the guard unit -- which recently returned from serving in Iraq and is "highly decorated" -- was on one of five helicopters being used to transfer 190 students in what's called the Winter Field Training Exercise on Duncan Field just off George Bush Drive.
A photographer for the local paper was on scene, photographing the Blackhawks for an ROTC article, and caught the entire crash with his camera including when the helo hit the ground. (Pictures are @ the first link.) He was stuck by debris, but not seriously injured.
I tried to get some pictures last night, but the combination of low light, being forced to shoot from a distance, and way too much crap in the way, didn't allow me to get useful pictures.
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