Communication Breakdown Blamed in Helicopter Crash Killing Local Soldier

By: Courtney Hayes

Updated: Thu 10:39 PM, Feb 26, 2004

Wednesday was the one year anniversary of an Army chopper crash that killed a local soldier. Thursday the Army says the crash could have been prevented.

Thirty-five-year-old Warrant Officer Tim Moehling and his three crew members were on a training mission in the Kuwaiti desert when their Black Hawk chopper flew into a sandstorm.

It turns out that two other Black Hawk pilots warned air traffic controllers about the sand storm before Moehling's helicopter flew into the area, but the tower never relayed the warnings to Moehling and his crew.

Moehling was a 1985 graduate of Mosley High School.

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