The True Story Behind The Helicopter Crash In 'Black Hawk Down'

In 2001, Ridley Scott released the epic combat action film, "Black Hawk Down," based on a 1999 book by journalist Mark Bowden of the same name. The movie features a star-studded cast including Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Jeremy Piven, Orlando Bloom, Ewan McGregor, and Tom Hardy (to name a few ... no seriously, there are a lot more) for two hours and 32 minutes of heart-pounding, teeth-grinding urban warfare.

Set in the 1990s, the crux of the film centers on U.S. military special forces, surrounded by rebels, caught in enemy territory in desperate need of an extraction plan after their Black Hawk helicopters — Sikorsky UH-60s — go down. Though the movie takes a number of artistic liberties, the film (and the book it's based on) is actually about the Battle of Mogadishu, which took place in Somalia in 1993, and did, in fact, begin with two downed Black Hawk helicopters.

The lead up to the helicopter crash is important for context about how and why the Battle of Mogadishu took place. In 1991, a civil war broke out in Somalia. As a result of the factions fighting, resource scarcity led to an estimated 30,000 deaths due to hunger. The following year, the United Nations led a humanitarian mission into Somalia to prevent further starvation across the country. However, warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his Somalia National Alliance (SNA) militia attacked peacekeeping forces, disrupting the supply chain and killing troops. "An estimated 80 percent of the supplies were hijacked by warring militias, who exchanged them for weapons and munitions with other corrupt nations," U.S. Army records indicate.

The U.N. continued on with its mission, despite losses to Aidid's militia. However, on June 5, 1995, a massacre escalated the conflict. That day, the SNA killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, which caused the U.N. to request U.S. troops to intercede and capture Aidid.

Initially, the U.S. government denied the request, but eventually Task Force Ranger was formed, and on Oct. 3, 1993, the unit was tasked with disrupting Aidid's chain of command by taking out two of his lieutenants. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. 

On that fateful day, roughly a hundred U.S. special forces troops were set to drop into Mogadishu by helicopter. They would capture Aidid's men and get out of dodge in 60 minutes. Instead, what ensued was an overnight battle across the streets of the city that cost the lives of 18 American soldiers and over a thousand Somalis. "The plan was to surround a white three-story house in the capital city of Mogadishu where leaders of Aidid's Habar Gidir clan were gathering," wrote Mark Bowden years later for Smithsonian. "Rangers would helicopter in, lower themselves on ropes and surround the building on all sides."

On the ground, an assault team was loading captives when militia members took down one of the surveilling Black Hawks with an RPG. As ground elements worked to shore up prisoners and evacuate casualties, fire fighting increased, and the troop elements were split. Two more of the helicopters took fire but managed to make it back to base damaged. That's when another Black Hawk went down. The entire crew died but one of the pilots, who was taken prisoner. Various elements were split across the city, working to break away and return to base. 

The operators triaged their wounded in the field while they held militia members at bay and awaited reinforcements. They fought all through the night. Ultimately, the mission was labeled successful as Aidid's lieutenants were captured along with 20 other SNA members, but the Battle of Mogadishu was the deadliest for American troops since Vietnam.