Military identifies soldier killed in helicopter crash off Va. coast

NORFOLK

Military officials have released the name of the soldier who was killed when an Army helicopter to crash into a Navy supply ship during a training exercise off the Virginia coast Thursday.

Army officials said the soldier killed in the crash was Staff Sgt. James R. Stright, 29, of Libby, Mont. Stright was assigned to Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.

Stright volunteered for Army service in 1998, and served in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) since 2003 as a helicopter mechanic. He is survived by his mother, Kathy Stright, and his father, Robert N. Stright, both of Libby, Mont.

Three of the eight soldiers injured in the crash were also assigned to Hunter Army Airfield, officials said. None had life-threatening injuries.

Lt. Cmdr. Phil Rosi, a spokesman for the Navy's Fleet Forces Command, said both Army and Navy personnel were injured in the crash, which occurred around 8 p.m. Thursday.

Two Black Hawk helicopters, apparently from the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, were approaching the supply ship Arctic, steaming about 23 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, before the crash.

The choppers, each operated by a four-man crew, were ferrying Navy commandos from the Fort Story campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base to a training mission aboard the Arctic.

The sailors - members of an unnamed special warfare unit from the Little Creek campus of the base - were doing "visit, board, search and seizure" drills, in which a small team lands aboard a merchant ship to search for weapons, smugglers or pirates.

A boarding team typically slides out of a hovering helicopter and onto a ship's deck using a braided nylon line, a maneuver called "fast-roping."

It wasn't clear whether any of the sailors had exited the helicopter before the crash.

Officials gave no details about a possible cause. There were no reports of poor weather at the time.

The helicopter crashed into the back of the ship, said Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, commander of the Military Sealift Command, which oversees supply ships. A small fire on the deck was quickly extinguished.

The other Black Hawk transported the wounded to the Norfolk hospital.

The Arctic, which replenishes warships in foreign waters, is operated by a small Navy team and a larger civilian crew. Officials said the ship has no official home port but frequents naval stations in Norfolk and Earle, N.J.

"Crew members of the Arctic responded very courageously and very professionally," Buzby said.

The Arctic pulled into Norfolk Naval Station in the early hours of Friday morning, a red tarp covering the helicopter's frame.

There was minimal damage to the Arctic's deck, Buzby said during a news conference Friday.

"I'd like to extend our condolences and sympathies to the families of those that were injured and to the family of the service member that lost his life in this training accident yesterday," he said.

"We deeply regret that it occurred, but unfortunately, it is part of the business we do at sea."

Navy SEALs aren't alone in the practice of boarding non-compliant vessels: Coast Guard members and other Navy personnel also regularly board suspicious foreign ships while patrolling off the coast of Somalia, where piracy is rampant.

April Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Navy Safety Center, said there were no comparable accidents in the records of the sea service.

In 1999, a Marine helicopter crashed after getting tangled in the netting of an oiler during a similar boarding exercise off California. But in that case, the helicopter hit the water, not the ship, Phillips said. Six Marines and a sailor died.

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, is headquartered at Fort Campbell, Ky., with additional battalions operating out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., and Fort Lewis, Wash.

Maj. Brandon Bissell, a spokesman for the 160th SOAR, did not say which battalion the helicopter belonged to.

The regiment has experienced its share of loss.

In August, four soldiers died when their Black Hawk crashed into Colorado's second-highest summit.

Another eight SOAR soldiers, along with eight SEALs, perished in Afghanistan during a rescue mission in 2005, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their Chinook helicopter.

The Associated Press and Pilot writer Cindy Clayton contributed to this report.

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com