By Becky Bohrer
The Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska — A lack of communication and the pilot and co-pilot’s failure to properly perform their duties contributed to a 2010 helicopter crash that killed three Coast Guard members at LaPush, according to the vice commandant’s final report released Monday.
Vice Adm. Sally Brice-O’Hara’s report came a day after the Coast Guard commander in Alaska, a rear admiral, found the actions of the sole survivor, co-pilot Lt. Lance Leone, directly contributed to the deaths of his colleagues and the helicopter’s destruction.
Brice-O’Hara found that pilot Sean Krueger and Leone were flying too fast and too low over the mouth of the Quillayute River, creating “a situation in which . . . even a momentary lack of attention increased the potential for a mishap.”
The report directed the Coast Guard’s Alaska commander, Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, to consider additional personnel action.
She said the commander of the Coast Guard Personnel Service Center also can decide whether to convene an aviator evaluation board to reconsider Leone’s suitability to fly again.
Leone was co-pilot of an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter flying from Astoria, Ore., to the crew’s base in Sitka, Alaska, when it hit an unmarked span of low-hanging wires over the river mouth to James Island and crashed into the water in July 2010.
Killed in the crash were Krueger, of Connecticut, and crewmen Brett Banks of Wyoming and Adam C. Hoke of Montana.
Leone had recovered from his injuries and was cleared for flight retraining when he was charged last year with negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and destruction of government property.
He was accused of not actively navigating or challenging Krueger’s decision to drop in altitude seconds before the helicopter hit the 1,900-foot span of wires which electrified a warning beacon on James Island.
The Coast Guard dismissed the charges earlier this month.
Brice-O’Hara found that a lack of adequate markings on the power transmission lines — which were maintained by the Coast Guard — might have contributed to the crash.
The wires, which were the site of at least two other air crashes in four decades, sloped from 190 feet high to about 36 feet.
According to testimony from a December military hearing on the incident, orange marking balls were not along the span at the time of the crash, instead pooled near a pole at a low point overland.
The helicopter hit the wires at about 114 feet, according to testimony.
During the hearing, the crash’s lead investigator also called the lines a contributing factor but said there was no reason for the aircraft to be flying so low.
Leone’s civilian attorney, John Smith, argued that Leone had programmed the high-tech helicopter on a track that would have missed the wires, but Krueger deviated from it, dropping in altitude as he flew over a Coast Guard boat in the Quillayute channel seconds before the crash.
Brice-O’Hara’s report is not intended to assign blame but rather to find out what went wrong and what could be done to prevent future accidents.
It included a series of recommendations, including a study of the feasibility of equipping Coast Guard helicopters with wire strike prevention systems.
It did not incorporate testimony from the military hearing, which a Coast Guard spokesman called a separate process.
Smith, Leone’s lawyer, said that move made the report “flawed and biased.”
“Evidence showing the Coast Guard’s callous disregard for the safety of aviators was developed and presented by the defense team,” Smith said in a statement.
“This evidence was not considered by the vice commandant. In addition, findings such as Lt. Leone ‘failed to actively navigate’ were debunked by evidence developed by the defense team [at the December hearing].”
Leone has refused to sign a document from Ostebo that noted his failure to perform required duties directly contributed to the crash.
A Coast Guard spokeswoman said Monday that it was an internal personnel matter but could not comment on the ramifications of Leone’s refusal.
