Bad day for the helicopter community

[muermel]

Additionally to the accidents already mentioned here, there has been 2 further ones.

Swiss Air Force Cougar crashed on glacier:

20 Minuten Online - Erster Pilot nach Heli-Absturz geborgen - Zentralschweiz (http://www.20min.ch/news/zentralschweiz/story/Abgestuerzte-Heli-Piloten-eingeklemmt-20443009) (in German)

Short translation:

Swiss Air Force helicopter crashed on glacier; pilots trapped after crash, both are heavily injured; one of them and loadmaster/crewchief flown to hospital; one still trapped in wreckage but emergency doctor taking care of him; weather was quite bad, first EMS helicopter couldn't land at site before 1800 local time; distress signal was first received at 1545 local time.



R-44 crashed in southern Germany

A R-44 crashed while attending to land or take off (no info on that), only that it crashed from low height. 60 year old pilot and 48 old passenger both ok. After crash fire damaged hangar buildings and consumed the wreckage of the helicopter.

Hubschrauberabsturz in Straubing - Polizeischlagzeilen - nordbayern.de (http://www.nordbayern.de/ressorts/polizeischlagzeilen/hubschrauberabsturz-in-straubing-1.1115972) (in German)


Quite a bad day

[SilsoeSid]

Cougar incident webpage translated (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.20min.ch%2Fnews%2Fzentralschweiz%2Fst ory%2FAbgestuerzte-Heli-Piloten-eingeklemmt-20443009&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate)

R44 incident webpage translated (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nordbayern.de%2Fressorts%2Fpolizeisch lagzeilen%2Fhubschrauberabsturz-in-straubing-1.1115972&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate)



Jeez that Robbo was bad

http://www.nordbayern.de/polopoly_fs/1.1116004.1301509199!image/990070126.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_full/990070126.jpg

[nigelh]

They do burn well dont they ...even better than the H300 !! Is this anything to do with the crashworthy tanks not fitted ??

[PotentialPilot]

Also a military helo down in hawaii, 1 dead posted in MA

[GenuineHoverBug]

Seems like the aux fuel tank was just about the only thing that did not burn.

[Senior Pilot]

CH-53D crash-landed offshore Kaneohe Bay last evening Hawai'i time. One fatal.

From Hawaii News Now (http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14346761)

KANEOHE (HawaiiNewsNow) - One Marine is dead after a CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter carrying four crew members crashed in Kaneohe Bay. The aircraft issued a mayday call shortly after it left Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

One crew member was removed from the helicopter, pronounced dead by the state medical examiner and later taken to Tripler Army Medical Center. The name of the deceased will be released 24 hours after next of kin notification.

The other three crew members were transported from Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay to Queens Medical Center. At last check, two were listed in critical condition and one in stable condition.

The aircraft made an emergency landing in shallow water on the Kaneohe Bay sandbar around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, approximately two miles from the air station. The downed helicopter remains on its side in Kaneohe Bay and the salvage operation is being planned.

The emergency startled residents who live near the bay.

"One big boom like thunder, and then about 10, 15 minutes after that I noticed military helicopters was unusually circling around," said Kaneohe resident Glenn Pang.

"We're working with the Kaneohe Marine Base waterfront ops, working with US Coast Guard. Fed fire is on the base, and HFD, Coast Guard and waterfront ops are in the ocean with the patients," said Capt. Terry Seelig of the Honolulu Fire Department.

Containment booms have been placed around the wreckage as a precaution. The Coast Guard is enforcing a temporary safety zone extending 500 yards around the aircraft.

Rescue responders included the Marine Corps Base Hawaii Waterfront Operations, aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard and Army and the Honolulu Fire Department as well as another CH53D from HMH363.

This incident is under investigation by the Marine Corps.

http://khnl.images.worldnow.com/images/14346761_BG5.jpg

http://khnl.images.worldnow.com/images/14346761_BG6.jpg

[bolkow]

Main shaft on that R44 looks perfectly serviceable to me, perhaps sand off a bit of the fire residue first, fit a second hand fuz and hey presto.

[SASless]

I have memories of a place far away where we lost more than that in one day at one place at one time.




One example....

LZ Lolo Picture (http://www.174ahc.org/lolo-pix.htm)

[Ready2Fly]

...with a little difference being that your example happened in combat, no?

[Dan Reno]

SASless

It will be hard in the future to ever match the number of helos crashed and people killed or wounded in that war and amazingly how fast dirt went to cover that loss. What's worse today are those who minimalize their loss because they were 'just soldiers’ and did what was expected of them. True enough, but as long as those of us who were there can still remember people and places where they died 'over there', I resent the way some present day civilian helo pilots brush-off our military helo pilot's experiences and sacrifices as seemingly below that 'harsh environment' in which they "must" perform today. Yeah, right.

Just saying.