Time Out
31st Oct 2003, 00:51
What a story!!!
Helicopter makes emergency landing in Mississippi pasture
Army National Guardsmen, journalists aboard not hurt
By Tom Smith, Regional Bureau
JONES COUNTY, Miss. – Stephanie Sanford was in her house Wednesday morning, going about her daily routine.
Her 2-year-old son, Tyler Flint, was playing on the kitchen floor.
"We had the windows up, because it was such a beautiful day,'' Sanford said. "Then, Tyler started pointing at the ceiling. He loves helicopters, and he does that when he hears one.''
Living near Camp Shelby, Miss., where thousands of soldiers train every day, hearing helicopters is a normal part of the family's experience.
The helicopter Tyler Flint heard Wednesday morning, however, left a lasting impression on his mother.
"I bent down to pick him up, and as I did, I glanced out of the window and there it was, sitting in our pasture,'' Sanford said.
Sanford saw a mammoth Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter that had made an emergency landing in her cow pasture.
The helicopter, manned by members of the 131st Airborne from Birmingham, was carrying six members of the media to Camp Shelby for a media day.
The helicopter, which left Northwest Alabama Regional Airport in Muscle Shoals shortly before 8 a.m., was transporting reporters and photographers from WHNT-TV, the Moulton Advertiser, the Arab Tribune and the TimesDaily.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., a hydraulic hose in the tail of the helicopter ruptured, causing the crew to make an emergency landing.
"I saw it; I saw it sit right down there in the pasture,'' said Curtis Flint, as he looked at the helicopter with other residents of the Antioch community, which is about four miles southeast of Laurel, Miss., and about 20 miles from Camp Shelby.
“I was driving down the highway, and I saw it circling like it was looking for a place to land. Then, I saw it go down. I just knew something must be wrong.
“But that pilot, he did a good job. It came across the tree and just sat down in the pasture.’’
Members of the media who were on board weren’t aware of a problem until the line ruptured.
“The first time I knew there was a problem was when I was woken up by a spray of hydraulic fluid,’’ said Todd Bender, a reporter in WHNT-TV’s Shoals Bureau.
Bender said although there was something visibly wrong with the aircraft, he didn’t worry.
“My father is a pilot, and I grew up around airplanes,’’ he said. “I know the military pilots are the best trained there are. I was never really worried.
“In fact, the only way you could tell it wasn’t just a normal landing was the fluid in the back of the helicopter.’’
The Chinook has three hydraulic systems, said Sgt. John Landrum.
The line that ruptured went to the utility system that operated the rear
ramp, the brakes and the starters to ignite the engine.
Landrum said it was standard operating procedure for the helicopter to make an emergency landing under those circumstances.
“The problem is, once it was down, it couldn’t start back,’’ he said.
“I’ve been doing this for 13 years, and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened,’’ said Spc. Daniel Stewart, a member of the crew.
He said when the line ruptured, the crew started looking for a location to land the aircraft.
As soon as the helicopter touched down, the passengers were hurried off to safety.
“Everybody was getting off the helicopter pretty fast,’’ Flint said, smiling. “It’s a good thing they moved the bull out of that pasture yesterday, or they would have been getting back on about as fast as they got off.’’
About 30 minutes after the emergency landing, a UH-6 Blackhawk helicopter picked up the media representatives to continue the trip to Camp Shelby.
The Chinook crew was able to repair the aircraft and transport the media contingent back to Muscle Shoals, without incident, Wednesday evening.
This (http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031030/NEWS/310300332/1011) report includes a picture, presumably taken by one of the journalists who was a passenger at the time.
Helicopter makes emergency landing in Mississippi pasture
Army National Guardsmen, journalists aboard not hurt
By Tom Smith, Regional Bureau
JONES COUNTY, Miss. – Stephanie Sanford was in her house Wednesday morning, going about her daily routine.
Her 2-year-old son, Tyler Flint, was playing on the kitchen floor.
"We had the windows up, because it was such a beautiful day,'' Sanford said. "Then, Tyler started pointing at the ceiling. He loves helicopters, and he does that when he hears one.''
Living near Camp Shelby, Miss., where thousands of soldiers train every day, hearing helicopters is a normal part of the family's experience.
The helicopter Tyler Flint heard Wednesday morning, however, left a lasting impression on his mother.
"I bent down to pick him up, and as I did, I glanced out of the window and there it was, sitting in our pasture,'' Sanford said.
Sanford saw a mammoth Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter that had made an emergency landing in her cow pasture.
The helicopter, manned by members of the 131st Airborne from Birmingham, was carrying six members of the media to Camp Shelby for a media day.
The helicopter, which left Northwest Alabama Regional Airport in Muscle Shoals shortly before 8 a.m., was transporting reporters and photographers from WHNT-TV, the Moulton Advertiser, the Arab Tribune and the TimesDaily.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., a hydraulic hose in the tail of the helicopter ruptured, causing the crew to make an emergency landing.
"I saw it; I saw it sit right down there in the pasture,'' said Curtis Flint, as he looked at the helicopter with other residents of the Antioch community, which is about four miles southeast of Laurel, Miss., and about 20 miles from Camp Shelby.
“I was driving down the highway, and I saw it circling like it was looking for a place to land. Then, I saw it go down. I just knew something must be wrong.
“But that pilot, he did a good job. It came across the tree and just sat down in the pasture.’’
Members of the media who were on board weren’t aware of a problem until the line ruptured.
“The first time I knew there was a problem was when I was woken up by a spray of hydraulic fluid,’’ said Todd Bender, a reporter in WHNT-TV’s Shoals Bureau.
Bender said although there was something visibly wrong with the aircraft, he didn’t worry.
“My father is a pilot, and I grew up around airplanes,’’ he said. “I know the military pilots are the best trained there are. I was never really worried.
“In fact, the only way you could tell it wasn’t just a normal landing was the fluid in the back of the helicopter.’’
The Chinook has three hydraulic systems, said Sgt. John Landrum.
The line that ruptured went to the utility system that operated the rear
ramp, the brakes and the starters to ignite the engine.
Landrum said it was standard operating procedure for the helicopter to make an emergency landing under those circumstances.
“The problem is, once it was down, it couldn’t start back,’’ he said.
“I’ve been doing this for 13 years, and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened,’’ said Spc. Daniel Stewart, a member of the crew.
He said when the line ruptured, the crew started looking for a location to land the aircraft.
As soon as the helicopter touched down, the passengers were hurried off to safety.
“Everybody was getting off the helicopter pretty fast,’’ Flint said, smiling. “It’s a good thing they moved the bull out of that pasture yesterday, or they would have been getting back on about as fast as they got off.’’
About 30 minutes after the emergency landing, a UH-6 Blackhawk helicopter picked up the media representatives to continue the trip to Camp Shelby.
The Chinook crew was able to repair the aircraft and transport the media contingent back to Muscle Shoals, without incident, Wednesday evening.
This (http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031030/NEWS/310300332/1011) report includes a picture, presumably taken by one of the journalists who was a passenger at the time.