Black Hawk Down Exercise

Story and Video David J. Loeffler

Nov. 1, 2023

ROSEVILLE, Calif.- Landing a 13,650-pound Black Hawk helicopter on a rooftop is no easy task. Add in injured wildfire victims, and debris strikes to the rear rotor which result in a spinning crash on to the helipad, and now you have the makings of a great scenario for a realistic exercise.

In what could be described as a scene from a zombie movie, volunteers with a wide variety of moulaged injuries were strewn about the helipad depicting the carnage of the aircraft crash.

The goal of this exercise is to test our medical center's ability to respond to a tragic crash of a Black Hawk helicopter on our helipad, said Erik Angle, Sutter Roseville Medical Center emergency response coordinator.

The California National Guard State Aviation partnered with medical staff at the Sutter Roseville trauma center and local emergency responders to participate in the rooftop exercise. Soldiers from the Guard's aviation unit have teamed with Sutter for six similar exercises in the past.

Sutter Roseville has the only hospital helipad, from Sacramento to the Oregon border, strong enough and large enough to accommodate large military helicopters. The Cal Guard has landed their medical Black Hawk helicopters on Sutter Medical's helipad in the past during multiple State emergencies.

 "The Guard's role here is to get the experience and training to cooperate with the hospital," said Warrant Officer 2 Ruvim Obolonchikif, Cal Guard aero-medical evacuation pilot. "If we ever have a local emergency and we need to bring a patient here, we need to be able to do it safely and efficiently."