iscover
Air Safety
0 comment
Though it occurred last April, the full story of how and why the US failed in their mission to rescue the American diplomatic staff held hostage in Iran has yet to be told in detail. For instance, why were only eight helicopters assigned to the mission? Why did several helicopters get lost en route? How did the RH-53 and the C130 collide at Desert One? Why were the helicopters, and engines still running, abandoned in such haste without even removing sensitive mission material including maps and coordinates? All this and more is revealed in great detail in this official report by the US Dept of Defence as supplied to the chairman of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
The report which follows will provide a detailed history of the key aspects of the attempted rescue mission, including planning, training, mission preparation, and events the night the positioning portion of the mission was attempted. At various points in this process, judgments were made. To provide a better perspective for understanding the validity of the decisions, this report will set down the rationale and the conditions under which those judgments were reached. Since helicopter operations played such a central role in both the concept and the eventual abandonment of the mission, this report will focus particularly on this aspect of the mission.
It was evident from the start that the refuelling of the helicopters en route from their launch point to their landing site in the vicinity of Tehran would be a very critical and difficult operation. Essentially selection of a refuelling site came down to a choice between an airfield or an area sufficiently flat, firm, and large to accommodate the landing and takeoff of refuelling aircraft and the conduct of refuelling operations. Before arriving at this conclusion, many other alternatives had been considered. The risks, complexity, and dangers of compromise to the mission associated with seizing an airfield or any of the other alternatives were judged to be more serious than the selected concept of a reasonably remote air landing and ground refuelling.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Australian Aviation a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Australian Aviation as a preferred news source.
