After the 2001 film Black Hawk Down, the US Army’s Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk has become one of the most easily recognizable military aircraft. When a group of motorists saw one descending on the highway, everyone pulled over and reached for their cameras.
Classified as a Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System or UTTAS, the Black Hawk entered serviced with the US Army in 1979 as a replacement for the Bell UH-1 Iroquois. Named for the Native American war leader, the Black Hawk services a variety of functions, primarily as a tactical troop transport.
In late 2015 a Black Hawk helicopter unit returned from Afghanistan to provide much needed emergency search-and-rescue assistance in Alaska. Since that time Fort Wainwright crews from C Company, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment have provided civilian first responders with assistance under an agreement with the Rescue Coordination Center at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.
“We keep a crew ready to go anytime we are conducting ‘high risk’ military training such as demolitions, live-fire exercises, etc. At the mission commander’s discretion, we also keep a crew on standby at Ladd Field when there is no high-risk training happening,” Army spokesman John Pennell told the Alaska Daily News.
This video shows the incredible moment a Black Hawk was used to help save a life along a remote highway near Chena Hot Springs, Alaska.
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