Report: Black Hawk crash which killed 14 due to tail rotor problems

Above: A UH-60 Black Hawk flies over North Babil province in Iraq at sunset in late July.

Families of some of the 10 Schofield Barracks soldiers killed in Wednesday's Black Hawk helicopter crash in northern Iraq were told the helicopter's tail rotor suffered a malfunction that caused it to crash.

CBS News reported that almost 800 yards into the flight, a tail rotor malfunctioned on the Black Hawk. The pilot called it in, but before he could react, the helicopter went into an uncontrollable spin and crashed in rough terrain, according to a report from CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

News of the likely cause came as Schofield attempted to cope with the loss and understand how it could have happened.

Department of Defense officials told the family of Spc. Ricky Bell, the Black Hawk's gunner, that "They were on an insurgent mission and that the tail rotor had a mechanical failure and caused the tail spin," said Bell's aunt, Glenda Overbey, who lives in Missouri.

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