A Black Hawk helicopter crashed at about 3 p.m. Monday into Duncan Field at Texas A&M University, leaving five injured and one dead. The aircraft was participating in the ROTC Winter Field Training Exercises at the University, alongside 190 cadets in the University's Corps of Cadets program.
The Army UH-60 Black Hawk had a crew of five on board, none of which were students.
A press release from the U.S. Army Cadet Command Headquarters in Fort Monroe, VA, has identified the deceased as Second Lt. Zachary Cook, a member of the Army ROTC Cadre at Texas A&M.
Cook was a 2008 graduate from the University and had served in company E-1 of the Corps of Cadets as a student.
The Texas National Guard identified the injured as 1st Lt. Ellis W. Taylor, 31; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew J. Smith, 41; Sgt. Richard D. Ravenscraft, 24; and Sgt. Charles C. Mitts, 42. According to National Guard officials, Smith and Mitts were in critical condition and Taylor and Ravenscraft were in stable condition.
Taylor was also a former student, serving in the Corps from 1995 to 1999 in the same company as Cook.
One student, a member of the Corps of Cadets, was reported slightly injured by flying debris during the crash. The name has not yet been released.
All the injured have been moved to St. Joseph's Hospital or the College Station Medical Center.
Eyewitnesses said at approximately 3 p.m., two helicopters were seen taking off from Duncan Field. It appeared that one of the two lost control shortly afterward and dove to the ground, spraying debris all over the field and the intersection of George Bush Drive and Coke Street.
"About 3:00, one took off directly to the north. The other one started taking off to the south, did a hard left and plummeted right back down to the ground," Ron Duensing, senior electrician of utilities at Texas A&M, said.
Duensing and a few other workers rushed to the scene and began to help those inside the fallen aircraft even before emergency personnel had arrived on the scene.
"We all took off running as fast as we could toward the helicopter," he said. "We knew it wasn't on fire yet, so we tried to get all the people out."
A press release from Texas A&M stated the rudder apparently failed on the helicopter during takeoff. Debris is reported as covering much of Duncan Field, as well as Throckmorton and Lewis streets.
An EMT official at the scene told the press that streets will be blocked off until the aircraft is removed, which could be for an extended period of time.
"Our initial response was to send quite a few people out because we initially had reports of multiple fatalities," the EMT official said.
When asked if there had been any personnel from the military or the Corps on-hand in case of such an emergency, he said it generally wasn't part of the procedure.
Col. Bill Meehan, spokesman for Texas Military Forces, said the aircraft had been providing transportation to and from Camp Swift in Bastrop, Texas, for participants in the training program.
