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Click here to go to the main story and the navigator to all materials associated with the King-56 crash story. |
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Sens. Ron Wyden (above) and Gordon Smith have set their sights on military investigations. Photo: Michael Parrish |
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The Coast Guard helicopter that rescued Vogel crashed last month, according to Air Force Times, killing four crew members.
Oregon's lack of military bases and Pentagon-related industry make it easier for Oregon's senators to blast the Air Force's investigation record. "The Air Force is a good, juicy target that will play well in the media," says University of Portland political scientist Jim Moore. "It's a no-brainer." |
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A Force to Reckon With By Bob Young, byoung@wweek.com In a break with Air Force solidarity, Col. Rick Davis, the commander of King-56's Portland-based squadron, last week said he welcomed an independent review of the crash investigation. "Right now what we need is a disinterested third party to look at this and make a statement," Davis told Air Force Times, a Virginia-based publication. Davis' statement contrasts with the official Air Force line: No outside probe into the crash is needed. When contacted by Willamette Week, Davis confirmed that the quote was accurate, but said he didn't mean to imply that such a review is necessary. "The point I was trying to make is that if a third party looked at the report, they would come to the same conclusion." If Davis is backing off of his statement, it's no surprise. "This is a brotherhood with a code of omertà [silence] just as strong as within the Mafia," says John Nance, a retired Air Force pilot and aviation analyst for ABC News. Indeed, when Oregon Sens. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden asked the Air Force last month to allow a review of the King-56 crash investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the response was a defiant rejection. "[W]e are confident of the thoroughness of the Air Force investigation, and even though the report did not pinpoint the exact cause of the mishap, we believe that nothing further will be gained by asking the NTSB to dedicate its limited resources to examining the HC-130 Report of Investigation," wrote Major Gen. Lansford E. Trapp Jr. Despite Trapp's objections, the NTSB did decide to review the King-56 investigation and is slated to brief Oregon's senators on its findings next week. If the NTSB review finds flaws in the Air Force probe, it will help Smith and Wyden's calls to reform the secretive--and some say incompetent--military investigation process ("Why Did these 10 Men Die," WW, June 18, 1997). Smith and Wyden aren't the only senators calling for sweeping changes in military accident investigations. Massachusetts Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry spoke out last month after a Boston Globe series revealed that since 1979, there have been 29,000 noncombat deaths in the U.S. military compared with 558 combat fatalities. The senators need all the help they can get, according to Alan Diehl, the Air Force's former top civilian safety officer. "If your senators introduced a bill tomorrow to change the investigation process, it wouldn't pass," says Diehl, whose 1995 revelation of 30 botched investigations has so far failed to prompt reforms from Congress. "The military has too many friends in the Senate." That's why Smith and Wyden should lower their sights, Diehl says, and instead ask the General Accounting Office--the investigating arm of Congress--to look into the Air Force's unreported accidents and uncorrected problems. "The first step is a GAO investigation," Diehl insists. "I don't think they'd be denied." Smith says he welcomes a GAO probe. But before committing, he's waiting for the NTSB review of the King-56 crash investigation. If the NTSB supports Smith's suspicions, then he's ready to tangle with the Air Force--despite warnings that he's up against a more formidable foe than he's ever faced. "We'll see what kind of dog is in this fight," Smith told WW, "when the dust starts flying." |
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