The 1994 Black Hawk shootdown incident, sometimes referred to as the Black Hawk Incident, was a friendly fire incident over northern Iraq that occurred on 14 April 1994 during Operation Provide Comfort (OPC). The pilots of two United States Air Force (USAF) F-15 fighter aircraft, operating under the control of a USAF airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, misidentified two U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters as Iraqi Mil Mi-24 "Hind" helicopters. The F-15 pilots fired on and destroyed both helicopters, killing all 26 military and civilians aboard, including personnel from the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Turkey, and the Kurdish community.
A subsequent USAF investigation blamed the accident on several factors. The F-15 pilots were faulted for misidentifying the helicopters as hostile. Also, the crew members of the AWACS aircraft were blamed for their inaction in failing to exercise appropriate control and for not intervening in the situation. In addition, the identification friend or foe (IFF) systems had not functioned to identify the helicopters to the F-15 pilots. Furthermore, USAF leaders had failed to adequately integrate U.S. Army helicopter operations into overall OPC air operations. As a result of the investigation, several USAF officers received administrative discipline, but only one, Jim Wang, an AWACS crew member, was tried by court-martial, in which he was acquitted.
As a result of complaints by family members of the victims and others that the military was failing to hold its personnel accountable, the U.S. Senate and U.S. House conducted their own investigations into the shootdown and the U.S. military's response to it. Also, Ronald R. Fogleman, the USAF's new Chief of Staff, conducted his own review of the actions taken by the USAF against the officers involved in the incident.
Fogleman's investigation led to several of the officers involved in the incident receiving further administrative discipline. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) subsequently refused U.S. Senate subpoenas for four USAF officers to be interviewed for the Senate investigation, which was never publicly released. The U.S. House investigation, conducted in part by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), found that the military investigative and judicial systems had operated mostly as designed, but also noted that the DoD had refused access to key witnesses.
Background
On 7April 1991, Iraq accepted United Nations (UN) ceasefire conditions and resolutions, thereby officially ending the Gulf War. This same day, a large multinational, multiagency humanitarian effort under the authority of UN Security Council Resolution No. 688 began to aid the approximately 500,000 Kurdish refugees who had fled from Iraqi military forces into the hills of northern Iraq. On 18 April 1991, John Shalikashvili took command of the U.S.-led operation to ensure security for UN relief operations and the Kurdish refugees, called Operation Provide Comfort (OPC).Snook, Friendly Fire, pp. 3–4, 27–29; Piper, Chain of Events, p. 143; Hall, Michael, My Son, pp. 78–81.
OPC took place in an area of northern Iraq above the 36th parallel. This area, approximately in size, was designated a "no-fly" security zone by UN coalition forces, enforced by a combined task force (CTF) of daily armed aircraft patrols from participating nations, including the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, and the United States. The United States Army was tasked with assisting civilian relief agencies to build communities and facilities for the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Over the next three years, 27,000 fixed-wing and 1,400 helicopter coalition flights took place in the zone to support humanitarian operations without interference from Iraqi aircraft or other military units.Schmitt, "Copter Deaths: Pentagon Finds Human Failure"; Snook, Friendly Fire, pp. 7–8, 29–30; Hall, Michael, My Son, pp. 78–81.
In April 1994, OPC was co-commanded by USAF Brigadier General Jeffrey Pilkington. The OPC combined air forces were commanded by Colonel Curtis H. Emery, USAF. Colonel Douglas J. Richardson, USAF, was the director of operations for the combined air forces.Piper, Chain of Events, p. 162; Snook, Friendly Fire, p. 30. The other OPC co-commander was a Turkish military general officer.
Incident On 14 April 1994, at 07:36 local time, a USAF E-3 AWACS aircraft from the 963d Airborne Air Control Squadron (based at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma) departed Incirlik Air Base (AB), Turkey in support of OPC. The AWACS, with its 19-member crew under the mission crew command of Major Lawrence Tracy, was to provide airborne threat warning and air control for all OPC aircraft during its time aloft. The AWACS crew reported on station at its assigned surveillance orbit altitude of located inside Turkey just north of the northern border of Iraq at 08:45. The weather that day was fair and clear over northern Iraq.Snook, Friendly Fire, pp. 4, 46, 53–54; Piper, Chain of Events, pp. 10–12, 51; Hall, Michael, My Son, p. 104.
At 08:22, two U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the 6th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment (based in Giebelstadt, Germany), called Eagle Flight, departed Diyarbakır, near Pirinçlik Air Base, Turkey, headed for the OPC military coordination center (MCC) located away in Zakhu, Iraq. Both helicopters were fitted with external, fuel tanks on sponsons mounted beside each side door with each tank emblazoned with large American flags. In addition to the flags on the fuel tanks, each helicopter was marked with American flags on each side door, on the nose, and on the belly. The lead Black Hawk was piloted by U.S. Army Captain Patrick McKenna, commander of the Eagle Flight detachment of six helicopters.Washington, "So, Who's to Blame?"; Snook, Friendly Fire, p. 76; Hall, Michael, My Son, pp. 81, 91, 103–04. Originally, four helicopters were planned for the mission, but Turkish military authorities would authorize only two (Hall). The helicopters' call signs were Chalk1 and Chalk2 and their tail numbers were #88-26060 and #87-26000 (Hall).
At 09:21, the Black Hawks reported their entry into the no-fly zone by radio on the en route frequency to the AWACS en route controller, Lieutenant Joseph Halcli, and then landed six minutes later at the MCC. Halcli and his superior officer, Captain Jim Wang, the AWACS's senior director, added "friendly helicopter" tags to their radar scopes, noted that both helicopters were displaying identification friend or foe (IFF) Mode I and Mode II signals, and then suspended the radar symbols after the Black Hawks disappeared from their scopes upon landing at the MCC at 09:24. Although the helicopters were squawking (signaling) the wrong IFF Mode I code for the no-fly zone (called the Tactical Area of Responsibility or TAOR), neither Wang nor Halcli informed the Black Hawk pilots of that (both helicopters, however, were squawking the correct Mode II codes). Wang and Halcli also neglected to direct the Black Hawks to begin using the TAOR radio frequency instead of the en route frequency.Weiner, "Court-Martial Nears in Case of Helicopters Shot Down"; Piper, Chain of Events, pp. 6–21, 51; Snook, Friendly Fire, pp. 4, 55, 100–01; Hall, Michael, My Son, pp. 278–79. Six Eagle Flight helicopters were stationed at Pirinclik. This was Wang's 60th mission over OPC. The IFF systems in use by Provide Comfort coalition aircraft used four identification signals, modes I, II, III, and IV. Mode III was not used in the TAOR (Hall).
At the MCC, the Black Hawks picked up 16 members of the UN Provide Comfort coalition leadership team including four Kurdish civilians, one Assyrian civilian, three Turkish, two British, and one French military officer, plus five U.S. civilian and military officials. At 09:54, the helicopters departed the MCC for Erbil, Iraq, a distance of . The Black Hawks reported their departure, flight route, and destinations by radio which was acknowledged by Halcli. Halcli then re-initiated the friendly helicopter track on his scope. Two of the Black Hawk passengers were Colonel Jerry Thompson, U.S. Army, commander of the MCC, and his replacement, Colonel Richard Mulhern, U.S. Army. At Arbil and later at Salah ad Din, Iraq, Thompson planned to introduce Mulhern to two prominent Kurdish leaders, Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, as well as to UN representatives. Halcli placed tags on his radar screen to show the two Black Hawks' track and notified Wang of the helicopters' movement. In addition to Halcli's screen, the friendly helicopter symbols were visible on the radar screens of Wang, Tracy, and USAF Major Doug Martin. Martin was the "Duke" or "ACE" airborne command element on the AWACS, meaning he was a rated aircrew member assigned to the crew to ensure that all engagement (combat) mandates were adhered to and executed as written in OPC policies.Piper, Chain of Events, pp. 6–22, 42, 51, 157; Weiner, "Court-Martial Nears in Case of Helicopters Shot Down"; Snook, Friendly Fire, pp. 4, 55, 100; Hall, Michael, My Son, p. 105. Martin was a rated navigator with 2,000 flying hours, mainly in General Dynamics F-111 aircraft and had flown in the 1986 Bombing of Libya. The lead helicopter's crew and passengers included: Patrick McKenna (27), pilot; John Garrett (32), co-pilot; Jeffrey Colbert (22), crewman; Mark Ellner (21), crewman; Jerald Thompson (48), MCC commander; Richard Mulhern (43), new MCC commander; Paul Barclay (24), US Army special forces soldier; Barbara Schell (50), US State Department advisor; Harry Shapland, British military officer; Hikmet Alp, Turkish military officer; Salid Said, Kurdish representative; Barlas Gultepe, Turkish military officer; Bader Mikho, Kurdish representative; and Ahmad Mohammad, Kurdish representative (Hall, pp. 97–103). The trail helicopter's crew and passengers included: Michael Hall (28), pilot; Erik Mounsey (28), co-pilot; Cornelius Bass (22), crewman; Michael Robinson (23), crewman; Laura Piper (25), US Air Force officer; Benjamin Hodge (32); US Army intelligence specialist; Ricky Robinson (33), medic; Jonathan Swann, British military officer; Guy Demetz, French military officer; Ceyhun Civas, Turkish military officer; Abdulsatar Arab, Kurdish representative; Ghandi Hussein, Kurdish representative (Hall, pp. 93–97).
En route to Arbil, at 10:12, the Black Hawks entered mountainous terrain and their radar returns disappeared from the AWACS's scopes. Captain Dierdre Bell, an air surveillance officer on the AWACS, noticed that the Black Hawks' radar and IFF returns had disappeared and sent an electronic "attention arrow" to Wang's scope. Wang took no action and the large blinking green arrow automatically disappeared from his screen after one minute.Snook, Friendly Fire, pp. 56, 101; Piper, Chain of Events, pp. 23–24; Weiner, "Court-Martial Nears in Case of Helicopters Shot Down".