Door fell off Merlin at Salthill Airshow, 3 injured.
 

and then it was 'Army' ..... :confused:

Murphy's law .... that's for sure .... :(

http://www.tyronetimes.co.uk/latest-...icleid=2978213

My sister and brother-in-law were there and saw it. Hopefully, not too nasty.

footage:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0624/9ne...62184,null,230

I was there about 100 feet away. It was the emergency door? on the starboard sliding door. Someone said they saw the crew chief try to stop it falling.
The Tyrone news is a bit wrong. It wasn't hovering, it was departing. I didn't see it hit anyone but on the news the video seemed to show that one man was clipped by it as it landed. He hopped up immediately and checked the state of the kid in the orange top lying nearby. I saw her dive to the ground, she wasn't hit. I suspect that the injuries are more related to diving for cover than impact although the man hit by the door might have some pain tonight. All of the injured were in fact standing up while being treated. It could have being a lot worse, a few seconds earlier and it would have hit people crowded on the prom. The beach was relatively uncrowded compared to earlier. The Thunderbirds had just finished their display and people were going home. As I left there were several disconsolate RAF types helping the police with their enquiries.
Here's the video.
http://www.rte.ie/news/9news/
I, of course had a perfectly good camera in my hand but failed to take a single shot.

Cos nothing's ever fallen off a Chinook at a public air show. That main gear was a figment of Abingdon's imagination.....

I remember one of the first Chinooks we recieved lost the port hatch over Southampton..........

The Puma that lost its Bubble window, eight foot strop and Ladder over a town...... the Ladder ended upright in some old dears lawn, whilst the strop took out a coal bunker...

Also the puma that lost its door in Norway sadly killing the crew...


I do hope everyone is ok. but it does happen sadly :(

nutloose
Puma's don't have bubble windows or inflight ladders!, and what was the door loss in Norway?? Are you thinking of a different aircraft type perhaps??

A Royal Navy Lynx lost the cabin door near the Kenyan coast some years ago, which took out the tail rotor and tragically resulted in the deaths of all nine POB. Point being that losing anything from a helicopter in flight is anything but trivial.

Twos in

Sorry who is your 'point being' directed at? I was asking for clarification of details. Who has posted on here suggesting that anything is 'trivial'?

I don't believe it fell of in-flight Jacko and neither was it 'the main gear' (it was a castoring rear wheel, the main gear are the big fellas towards the front) but this isn't really the place to 'score' points off each other. The fact that something like this has happened to one of the newest a/c in our inventory shows it could happen to anyone.

Glad to see no one is seriously injured.

Minor detail but wokka wheels are all the same so the fronts are no more "main" than the rears.

Tigs, I think that he is referring to the bubble window underneath the rear of the fuselage, whose loss along with the 8' strop is quite pheasable. I would have doubted that the maintenance ladder would have fallen but clearly it may have done. This would have been before the 'bits box' was a permanent feature and when the jammer was not required on a daily basis.

I have not heard this story before but did hear about the load pole departing in the days before it was strapped to the aircraft.

There are sadly many incidents of emergency doors falling after the general public have has had access to yellow and black levers, and it usually concludes with crew members in deep quano. This being despite the real offender placing levers back into their rightfull position. Morale is to check the pins, but I have no idea if that is even possible on the Merlin hatch, which gives the likelihood that there will be no public access to military helicopters. This is an understandable loss to the genuinely interested public who respect keepng their dinkies off 'controls'.

Tigs 2, you showeth your young years my child!! Not THAT long ago, the Puma didn't have a jammer fitted, except when it was in NI. It had a lovely bubble window at the back and the ladder went into some rails on the top. It was of no use whatsoever as it was always covered in oil (and crew kit)....

Tigs2 et al
 

Despite it having bugger all to do with the thread...a Puma Crew (Tiger Tiger) had placed all the role equipment and various other items on the ladder stowage down at the back of the cabin where the ladder is stowed. This was pre-RWR and M147 kit when we had a big round window in the rear panel. Apparently, they flew into some 'turbulence' and the whole shebang fell through the window onto the ground underneath. The strop destroyed the balcony of an 'old dear's' house. Fortunately she was half deaf so she wasn't too shocked! A bunch of flowers and the TV coverage did it for her!
Yes a starboard Puma door fell off inflight in Norway in the 70's killing all three crew.

Minor correction, no they're not.

The rear gear struts have a single wheel each side, one side castoring one side steerable. The forward gear has twin wheels on each side, fixed, non-castoring and significantly heavier, hence my description as 'main gear'.

Don't go messin' with them there 'sliders, seems like they don't know their own strength...........



'All with that tongue firmly in cheek:)

Bit Jumpy Jacko.

Surely even a Merlin apologist like yourself wouldnt come out swinging at another type without any facts....oh no, your a journo!

WM

Dundiggin'
Thanks for the clarification. I remember only to well the rear bubble window in the Puma prior to jammer, Maws and everything else strapped in, but never heard of that incident and was thinking of another incident concerning a Sea King. Thanks.

Usual replies then. Why not get back on topic of a door falling off a Merlin HC3 rather than :mad: about yapping about a Chinook incident that happened ages ago?
I Can't view the Irish footage, is it the same as Sky News?
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/vi...-1272024,.html