DEADLY MYSTERY

Criminal Investigation Opened Into Fatal Black Hawk Crash: ‘Not an Accident’

A criminal investigation has been opened into last week’s incident at Fort Stewart, which resulted in the death of Capt. James Bellew.

A collision between two Black Hawk helicopters at a Georgia airfield last week that resulted in the death of a medical evacuation pilot was “not an accident,” according to a report by the Army Times. A source with knowledge of the ongoing situation at Fort Stewart told the outlet that a criminal investigation had been opened into the death of Capt. James Bellew, who was found at the site of a “crash involving two HH-60 helicopters at Wright Army Airfield” around 2 a.m. on March 30, according to the 3rd Infantry Division. All other crewmembers in his unit “were asleep at the time of the incident,” a spokesperson for Bellew’s unit said. The 26-year-old captain joined the Army in 2017, according to the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It was not immediately clear how Bellew had been able to commandeer the helicopter in the dead of night, nor how he was able to do so without alerting anybody else at the base. “Various narratives of the events that followed have emerged in closed social media groups and a since-deleted blog post,” the Army Times reported Tuesday. “However, all of the narratives described the event as an intentional destruction of both aircraft.”