ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The investigation into a helicopter crash that killed three Minnesota soldiers is one step further along, but it may be months before it's completed.
J.T. Coleman, the director of communications for the Army Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker in Alabama, told KARE 11 that investigators have completed the information gathering phase of the process. That means they've finished looking through wreckage, witness statements, and autopsy reports.
The UH-60 Black Hawk crashed into a farm field near Kimball during a routine maintenance test flight in December. The three Minnesota National Guard members on board were all killed. They were later identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 James A. Rogers Jr., 28; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles P. Nord, 30; and Warrant Officer Candidate Kort Plantenberg, 28.
The soldiers were all assigned to Company C, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion, based in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The Guard said that all three had returned from a nine-month deployment to the Middle East in May, conducting medical evacuations.
Now, Coleman says investigators are working on compiling their report. Once that is complete, it has to go through several stages of review.
It will likely be several months until a report is released.
