LAPUSH — A Coast Guard helicopter co-pilot who was the only survivor of a July 7, 2010, crash that killed three crewmen off the Washington state coast at LaPush will be questioned Dec. 7 in a public, trial-like setting: a U.S. Code of Military Justice Article 32 hearing.
The hearing at the federal building in Juneau, Alaska, could lead to Lt. Lance Leone’s court-martial and 7½ years of confinement, said Greg Versaw, Coast Guard deputy staff judge advocate in Juneau.
Leone, based at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Alaska, has been charged with two counts of negligent homicide, two counts of dereliction of duty and one count of destruction of government property in what the Coast Guard has said was the only fatality-crash involving a Coast Guard helicopter in 2010.
Leone said, “I’m not allowed to talk,” in a voice mail last week.
“I can’t talk about anything,” he said. “Anything can and will be used against me.”
Charge sheet
Versaw would not release the “charge sheet” that contained the counts against Leone, saying last week the investigation into the crash has not been completed.
But Sitka’s public radio station, KCAW-FM, reported Leone is being charged with failing to navigate the helicopter away from charted hazards, failing to fly above 500 feet in accordance with Coast Guard policy and destroying the helicopter, valued at
$18.3 million.
He also is being charged with negligently causing the deaths of crew members Petty Officer 1st Class Adam Hoke, 40, of Great Falls, Mont., and Aviation Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Brent M. Banks, 33, of Rock Spring, N.Y.
Leone is not being charged in connection with the death of the pilot, Lt. Sean D. Krueger, 33, of Seymour, Conn.
Versaw said Friday the information is from the charge sheet.
Leone will be represented by legal counsel at the Article 32 hearing.
It will be overseen by Coast Guard Capt. Andrew Norris, an investigating officer who will make a recommendation on the disposition of the charges — from dismissing them to recommending Leone undergo a general court-martial, Versaw said.
Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of District 17, which includes Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, will determine if the case will proceed to a court-martial, District 17 spokesman Kip Wadlow said in an earlier interview.
Final review
But information gathered by the Coast Guard over the past 16 months that led to the charges is not being released, either, because the results of the investigation are under “final review” at the vice commandant level, Versaw said.
“An investigation was conducted,” Versaw said. “It’s going through the process of review prior to being completed. It won’t be completed until trial.”
The Coast Guard’s “administrative investigative report,” which the Coast Guard will never make public, is being reviewed by Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., Versaw said.
The report, under review “for several months,” is primarily focused on “evaluating the actions of those people involved and will determine if there was any sort of culpability that they engaged in that may have led to the incident,” Versaw said.
The report formed the basis of the charges against Leone but when completed will not recommend a course of action, he added.
Versaw did not know when the report review will be completed.
“The Coast Guard has to determine what the final action will be, and they will draft a final action document to be released to the public,” he said.
Called a final action memo, it will include the factual details of the investigation, the purpose of the helicopter flight — “the factors and such that resulted in the crash,” Versaw said.
But it may not include the opinions and recommendations of those who reviewed it, he said.
“Opinions and recommendations are subject to being removed,” he said.
Co-pilot
Leone was co-piloting the MH-60 rescue helicopter that hit thick power cables that were strung — and since have been removed — from LaPush to James Island across the mouth of the Quillayute River.
The crew was in the last leg of a cross-country trip.
It began in North Carolina, included a refueling stop at Coast Guard Air Station Astoria, Ore., and was to end at Air Station Sitka.
Leone, the father of two preschool children, was rescued by Quileute Marina Harbormaster Darryl Penn and fisherman Charles Sampson within 10 minutes of the helicopter tumbling upside-down in the water.
He broke his right collarbone, and his left arm and right leg were lacerated.
“I couldn’t have swam,” he told the Peninsula Daily News in a Feb. 20 interview.
Leone remains on flight restriction and is “doing administrative duties” at Air Station Sitka, Wadlow said last week.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
