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Old 15th Jan 2003, 22:03
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Jackonicko
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Just behind the back of beyond....
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Near Abingdon (and even closer to the A34!) during daylight.

Aircraft appears to have toppled over after landing on soft, uneven ploughed field, reportedly after Mayday call. The wreck looked substantially complete and only a little twisted at the back end. Some fuel spillage but no fire. If its CAT 5 then it should at least be easily restorable as a GI or display airframe (it really didn't look that bad, in other words). All four aboard taken back to Benson on another No.33 Squadron Puma.

Film shown on local news. Female Squadron Leader from No.33 interviewed briefly, along with weirdy beardy ancient local aviation 'expert'. The latter surprisingly did an excellent job of defusing the journo's 'crash scandal approach' and associated questions by saying, "yes helos can make forced landings because that thing on the top is a rotary wing", then by saying "yes crews often survive such incidents" and "yes they can topple over if they autorotate onto such a poor surface, it's not a known or particular Puma weakness". Poor Central TV girlie looked deflated and wrapped up to camera very quickly.

Hope the guys are as OK as TV inferred.
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