Pentagon misstated how Special Operations troops died off Cyprus last year

The Washington Post / Kyle Rempfer

16:39 JST, November 20, 2024

A secretive U.S. Army helicopter unit sent to the Mediterranean last year in response to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel was conducting nighttime target practice when one of its crews crashed into the sea after a diving attack, killing all five on board, according to a mishap report obtained by The Washington Post.

The report, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, contradicts how the Pentagon described the sensitive incident after it occurred on Nov. 10, 2023, as the Biden administration sought to show support for Israel and discourage adversaries such as Iran from further fomenting tensions. Days after the crash, a Defense Department statement said the Black Hawk helicopter was conducting aerial refueling training when an in-flight emergency caused it to crash.

In their report, Army investigators said instead that the helicopter had been performing gunnery training along with two other specially designed MH-60M Defensive Armed Penetrators, which are outfitted with more offensive weaponry than is typical of Black Hawk designs. The crews flew out of Akrotiri in southern Cyprus, refueled in the air and proceeded to test their weapons on a 37-gallon barrel afloat below, the report said. The helicopter that crashed did not pull up in time after firing its guns and hit the water at a speed of roughly 140 mph. The aircraft then rolled and sank rapidly, the report said.

The MH-60M and its crew were part of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which rapidly dispatched assets to the region for “rotary wing fires support” early on in the Gaza crisis, the mishap report said. The Pentagon seldom publicly acknowledges the movement of such units, known to whisk top Special Operations forces on and off battlefields, and any disclosure of their presence practicing strafing attacks so close to the fighting between Israel and Hamas probably would have faced blowback among opponents of U.S. support for the Jewish state.

In response to questions about the discrepancy, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Special Operations Command told The Washington Post that in recent days military officials had distributed a corrected version of the original news release from last November and updated the version appearing on the Defense Department’s website.

Lt. Col. Allie Scott, the spokeswoman, explained the error by saying authorities possessed limited information about the crew’s activities in the crash’s immediate aftermath. “The refueling was a portion of the training, one could not happen without the other,” Scott told The Post, adding that “the loss was overwhelming and there was an immediate need to communicate.”

Witnesses aboard other aircraft saw the accident occur, according to the mishap report, which contains substantial redactions. They told investigators there had not been a Mayday call by the MH-60M pilots before their aircraft hit the water.

The report includes a half-dozen recommendations to prevent future accidents, but the details were redacted along with investigators’ precise findings. Scott also declined to address what had gone wrong during the training mission or say what changes have been made as a result.

The attack maneuver the pilots were practicing begins with the helicopter climbing upward and then diving sharply, almost creating a feeling of weightlessness for those on board, before pulling up, said Alan Mack, a retired Army master aviator who flew with the 160th SOAR.

“If you misjudged the pull or you didn’t see the water, or the swells were higher than anticipated, then there’s no time for a Mayday call,” Mack said, cautioning that given the report’s redactions, it’s difficult to know for certain what went wrong – be it mechanical issues or unexpected surf conditions.

Though the crews had advanced night vision goggles, the illumination from moonlight, which that technology relies on in part, was at just 12 percent, the report determined. Mack said those are poor conditions but not abnormal for the 160th SOAR.

“The 160th strives to fly during zero illumination, because the enemy nowadays typically has night vision capabilities,” Mack said, meaning U.S. forces train to operate during degraded conditions to maintain their edge. “So if you’re going to do a hostage rescue, you’re going to try to do it during zero illumination.”

The heavily censored mishap report compiled by the U.S. Army’s Combat Readiness Center said the crash was considered partially survivable, and some survival equipment worn by individuals did not function as designed.

Search crews observed aircraft debris in the water along with multiple chemical light sticks and a seven-person inflatable raft, the report said. The bodies of two of the five crew members were recovered – one died of drowning and the other of trauma wounds, autopsies showed. How long it took to find the men was redacted in the report.

The Army identified the five crew members killed in the accident as Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tenn.; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento; Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, N.H.; Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Ariz.; and Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minn.

Israel’s war in Gaza has since broadened into an invasion of southern Lebanon. Since the Black Hawk crash last year, U.S. involvement in the crisis has deepened. American troops have been sent to Israel to operate an advanced antimissile system, U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles have been used to shoot down attack drones, and naval destroyers have intercepted missiles. A U. S-led coalition, meanwhile, has conducted routine offensive strikes on militants in Yemen who, citing Israel’s war in Gaza, have targeted numerous commercial and military vessels transiting the Red Sea.