ayaarr
1st Jun 2007, 08:10
The following incident report is copied and posted here with the Permission of the Company operating the Helicopter and the Pilot in command at the time of the incident
Good reading while enjoying a chilled chardonnay...
It has been copied and pasted from the original PDF attachment I received
P2-PAV On 13th April it was reported that our Bell 212, P2-PAV , had made a forced landing 100 miles SW of
Kabul in Afghanistan, and had subsequently been destroyed by the Taliban.
All personnel returned safely to base, but PAV was
completely destroyed – see W’s preliminary
report below.
Gents,
The short version of the incident and subsequent events.
At about 1645hrs on 12th, while in cruise at 9000ft (1500' AGL), we experienced a not very violent yaw, followed by
the #2 fire handle light.
#2 ITT was observed to be past the red line. Fire light stayed ON even after both the fire bottles were discharged.
passengers (4) were told to open the doors and report signs of fire. They reported smell of
smoke as soon as the doors were opened.
Although Ghazni military camp was only 15 NM away, I decided to make an emergency landing, and was hoping the
fire light would extinguish before I was committed to land. Unfortunately the light stayed ON all the way down, to
soft 10 meter run-on landing on sandy/stony surface.
Fire light stayed ON until shutdown. On inspection after landing there was no visible signs of a fire on #2 engine. But
when I tried to motor #2 engine it sounded rough with very high frequency vibration felt throughout the airframe.
Was unable to take-off and fly away on one engine as I had too much fuel. Decided to drain fuel while awaiting arrival
of ground forces to secure PAV. Also could not rotate the main rotor blade in the reverse direction. It confirmed a
major internal problem with #2 engine.
We had established comms with the military via Satphone and within 30 mins we had a pair of F18s and a Predator
keeping an eye on us. But about 1815hrs the Predator and the F18s left us.
A South African Security coordinator who was one of the passengers, took charge and decided we had to move away
from the helicopter as soon as it got dark. At around 1845 when we were moving to a dry river bed about 30 meters
from the helicopter the bad guys started shooting at us.
We returned fire and kept moving away from the helicopter.
when we were about a mile from the heli we heard a RPG explode and PAV was alight. They then fired a second RPG
onto PAV. We kept walking in the dark towards Ghazni. we were in contact with the military and they knew we were
being pursued.
When we were about 2 miles away from the PAV we were told to stay low as a B1 going to drop a big one within
seconds. A 500lbs bomb was dropped on the bad guys not far from the wreck. 2 Apaches then arrived and beat the
**** of the guys who were trailing us.
A C130 gunship too arrived to clean up the area. We were then told to return to
the wreck as our ride (7 Humvees) with US special Forces had already secured the area. Time now around 2230hrs.
We were reluctant to do that just in case they had missed some of the bad guys. Then the 2 Apaches which had
expanded all their ordnance landed beside us and took us back to the wreck and into the safe hands of the US special
Forces. How did we ride on a attack which has only two crew seats? We were strapped onto the hand holds sitting on
the wings. What a 2 minutes ride.
After a hour's ride over rough terrain we were in Ghazni USSF camp around 2330hrs.
W.
Good reading while enjoying a chilled chardonnay...
It has been copied and pasted from the original PDF attachment I received
P2-PAV On 13th April it was reported that our Bell 212, P2-PAV , had made a forced landing 100 miles SW of
Kabul in Afghanistan, and had subsequently been destroyed by the Taliban.
All personnel returned safely to base, but PAV was
completely destroyed – see W’s preliminary
report below.
Gents,
The short version of the incident and subsequent events.
At about 1645hrs on 12th, while in cruise at 9000ft (1500' AGL), we experienced a not very violent yaw, followed by
the #2 fire handle light.
#2 ITT was observed to be past the red line. Fire light stayed ON even after both the fire bottles were discharged.
passengers (4) were told to open the doors and report signs of fire. They reported smell of
smoke as soon as the doors were opened.
Although Ghazni military camp was only 15 NM away, I decided to make an emergency landing, and was hoping the
fire light would extinguish before I was committed to land. Unfortunately the light stayed ON all the way down, to
soft 10 meter run-on landing on sandy/stony surface.
Fire light stayed ON until shutdown. On inspection after landing there was no visible signs of a fire on #2 engine. But
when I tried to motor #2 engine it sounded rough with very high frequency vibration felt throughout the airframe.
Was unable to take-off and fly away on one engine as I had too much fuel. Decided to drain fuel while awaiting arrival
of ground forces to secure PAV. Also could not rotate the main rotor blade in the reverse direction. It confirmed a
major internal problem with #2 engine.
We had established comms with the military via Satphone and within 30 mins we had a pair of F18s and a Predator
keeping an eye on us. But about 1815hrs the Predator and the F18s left us.
A South African Security coordinator who was one of the passengers, took charge and decided we had to move away
from the helicopter as soon as it got dark. At around 1845 when we were moving to a dry river bed about 30 meters
from the helicopter the bad guys started shooting at us.
We returned fire and kept moving away from the helicopter.
when we were about a mile from the heli we heard a RPG explode and PAV was alight. They then fired a second RPG
onto PAV. We kept walking in the dark towards Ghazni. we were in contact with the military and they knew we were
being pursued.
When we were about 2 miles away from the PAV we were told to stay low as a B1 going to drop a big one within
seconds. A 500lbs bomb was dropped on the bad guys not far from the wreck. 2 Apaches then arrived and beat the
**** of the guys who were trailing us.
A C130 gunship too arrived to clean up the area. We were then told to return to
the wreck as our ride (7 Humvees) with US special Forces had already secured the area. Time now around 2230hrs.
We were reluctant to do that just in case they had missed some of the bad guys. Then the 2 Apaches which had
expanded all their ordnance landed beside us and took us back to the wreck and into the safe hands of the US special
Forces. How did we ride on a attack which has only two crew seats? We were strapped onto the hand holds sitting on
the wings. What a 2 minutes ride.
After a hour's ride over rough terrain we were in Ghazni USSF camp around 2330hrs.
W.