Underslung Load 'Incidents'
 

As part of my job in supporting aircrew training with USL training, I wish is to bring home to my audience:
The importance of CRM both for the crew and ground handling parties,
Good Load'
Pre-and post use checks
Adherence to USLCs
That 'niggling feeling' you had which averted potential disaster etc.
Anything else!

To help me, I'd be really grateful for any meaty USL stories which have remained etched in your collective memories over the passage of time. I'm particularly interested in geometric lock occurrences (strop twisted on SACRU, bill opens, load detaches) as I've only seen one documented incident of this. And, those occurrences which unfolded to your horror in pretty short order!

The more detail you can provide (place, type etc) the better, as it will help me contextualise relevance to the brief. You may wish to PM than post, but any contributions are very welcome - and thanks for keeping the thread on track. I know there are many of us out there (including myself) who think 'there but for the grace of God...' I want to help our new crews to learn from our incidents.

On 24 April 2006, Shortshaft posted:

Nigel Osborn replied

The fact is the event did take place, in 1968, after a 28 Squadron Whirlwind went down in rough terrain in the New Territories (engine failure?) The aircraft was assessed as Cat 3, but was unrecoverable by land, so the Navy kindly offered to pick it up and bring it back to Kai Tak , presumably after stripping it down as far as possible. As Shortshaft surmised, the aircraft was dropped from a great height, and Cat 3 became Cat 5! Thanks Navy!

You want to try Old Duffer, who I think has written a history of 28 squadron. He will certainly know more details than I do.

I was one of four crewmen who underslung a long wheelbase Landrover in 2 cargo nets, (one around the front and one around the rear tied together with para cord IIRC), but nothing went wrong so you probably aren't interested. I have the only known photograph of the flight too...

Dropping a load
 

Didn't a Belvedere drop a Beaver as underslung load at Khormaksar in 1963, anybody confirm ? seem to remember some incident with a 26 Sqd Belvedere, PH.

Falkland Islands approximately 1976. While moving 30 foot bamboo poles underslung from a Westland Wasp, to be used as markers for chart making. The pilot released them from too high and too fast a speed, where they proceeded to bounce off the beach into the rotor disc.
It was a good job we were able to get some replacement blades to the beach by boat.

I once had to persuade a Grenadier Guards Major that sitting in his Land-Rover while we flew it underslung to the final battle of his annual exercise (so he could point the way for me :ugh: ) was not a very safe idea. "But I do have a pair of goggles and I'll wear my seat belt!", said he. :8

I explained that Land-Rovers spun round and round on the end of the strop so he'd get dizzy and in any event I couldn't see him hanging under the helicopter.

That didn't really put him off so I told him how, in the event of engine failure, I'd have to pickle off the load; after which he decided to drive instead. :ok:

ISTR hearing of a number of OM leather armchairs being released into the Weser while being delivered to a VIP stand at a bridging demo. Also the time someone tried to deliver a digger to a hilltop site not far from Bessbrook but ran out of puff before they could stop.

Navy Seaking
 

A tragic occurrence, involving; lack of fuel, and the 'coke can' left covering the pilot's emergency foot plunger release. So many CRM issues, but all covered in the AIB report. Happened in the 80's, possibly very early 90's - sorry, can't remember quite when.

In the quest to complete the sortie the a/c ran out of fuel, no jettison (coke can) and descended vertically, at speed, on top of the load.

Several injuries and one dead(?) the crewman layed out flat on the floor prior to impact and survived, but with his boom mike through his cheek. I think the American LHS was paralysed.

Update.

Found a link. 21 June 1985.

There was the Puma the bubble window fell out, compete with the 8 foot strop and ladder, believe it demolished some Grannies coal bunker.. And didn't one accidentally take out a bridge in NI when it erm dropped a roadblock.

Also didn't a Wessex jettison a cow in NI... Bet that was one tenderised steak.

The Australian Army must have thought their Hamel guns were cursed at one stage some years ago regarding Blackhawk moves -

one was dropped in transit (crew swore blind they didn't do it inadvertantly, and the systems checked out fine so it was in the unexplained basket) (lesson - weird **** can sometimes happen so don't fly over anything you don't want to bomb);

then another was being picked up at night on goggles and one of the strops caught around part of the gun causing it to swing unstably to such an extent the helicopter crew thought it would hit the main rotor, so they pickled it (lesson - make sure the rigging is all hanging right before going too far from where you picked up the load);

then (non helicopter related), a gun crew were manhandling one around when it charged off down a hill and destroyed itself (lesson - grunts often break things).

There was also the RAAF Iroquois crew who spotted a beached dinghy washed up somewhere along our extensive northern coastline and decided to salvage it. Cobbled up some ropes and strops and hung it off the hook, off they went happily until some airspeed was gained and the boat started to fly dangerously, some ropes broke, dinghy was pickled. (lesson - use the right gear and be careful of how stuff flies).

Then there was the Aussie pilot on a brief exchange trip with some US Iroquois guys in the middle east. Aussie way was to note temperature and PA and work out the lifting capability of the aircraft for each load, but apparently the yanks at this unit would work it out in the morning on expected conditions. The helicopter took off with the Aussie as copilot to lift a water bladder up to a higher elevation hilltop OP, approaching the drop point and slowing down it becomes apparent that the power available is less than that required, load starts to scrape along the ground and threatens to drag the helicopter in with it, copilot pickles the load. (lesson - note the actual conditions and figure out your lifting capability based on them).

That reminds me of the Aussie Iroquois that put down with a chip light or similar somewhere in the bush, needed to be external loaded home by Chinook. The Chinook lifts it out at warp factor five and in so doing causes a lot more damage to the poor old Huey than was originally the case. (lesson - rig carefully and go gently).

Mid seventies I'm a QHI on a basic training squadron with a student in the USL (44 gallon drum full of concrete weighing around 1,800lbs) outlying field. Other helo in circuit is a mutual crew captained by a very experienced Mirage fighter pilot undergoing helo conversion. In the back of his helo is a very experienced war veteran crewman. I'm sitting on ground observing him on downwind. I note where there should be a load attached to his helo there isn't. I call him up to advise that he has lost his load somewhere. His reply - no it's OK. I rub my eyes and continue to debrief my student. When knuck is on base I again alert him that he has no load - again - no it's OK! Rapid rub of my eyes and thinking of appointment with eye doctor he is now on short final to drop zone. My transmission is "xxxxx(name deleted as he is now a very senior pilot with a well respected EMS operation!) I want you to listen to me carefully YOU DO NOT HAVE AN EXTERNAL LOAD CONNECTED TO YOUR AIRCRAFT!! Reply "Oh ****e". Load had dropped off on crosswind. VEC, laying on belly in back, bored ****eless after endless student USL sorties was looking at red/green lights on underside of helo showing green indicating hook closed SAFE. Unfortunately he didn't notice there was no strop attached!!
You can tell a knuck by his big watch and small d1ck but you can't tell him much!!
GAGS
E86

Chinook stories from Vietnam days....

Brand new UH-1H, Command and Control aircraft with the wonderful rack of radios installed....24 hours on the clock total time. Blown hydraulic line....Battalion Commander would not be convinced to have a new line flown up to the U/S aircraft. No...by Gawd....you'll sling it back to Chu Lai. In those days when making the transit to Chu Lai from up north....we went three miles out to sea as it was much safer for us than flying over the bad guys. As luck would have it....about half way home with the Huey on a sling....noticeable jolt in the airframe....too much power applied for cruise suddenly....and an audible "Aw ****!" from the FE who was working the load in back. When he confirmed my worst fears....I echoed his comment. Fortunately for us....the strop broke...and the strope belonged to the Huey guys.

Hauling guard towers for the Aussies down at Nui Dat. Pre-constructed at a secure site then flown out to where they were needed. On the third haul....we found the load to be really....really heavy compared to the first two. It became really light all of a sudden when we pulled it apart.....as two of the anchor bolts had not been undone and it was still bolted to Vietnam.

Hauling a Pig Pen (old truck bed rigged for hauling loose items of food or ammo)....happened to look in the rear view mirror and noticed a Chinese Parliament going on over the cargo hook hatch in the floor of the cabin. Wondering what was going on.....and about to ask the FE to explain.....I saw the Crew Chief pulling in a rope.....and a big white cardboard box appear in the cargo hook hatch which the FE then shoved behind a troop seat. The Gunner was down in the Pig Pen passing up boxes of Steak and Chicken.

Hauling 3/4 Ton Weapon Carriers.....one internal....one on a sling. Trick is the combination was too heavy to make a hover departure. Our solution....running takeoff with a guy steering the slung WC until it began to lift off the ground then he jumped off. The trick was landing as usually the steering wheels would drift to some sort of left turn enroute. Timing was of the essence....cutting the load off just as it touched....and watching about half of them run off the landing area into the bush or simply roll over.

Youth.....unhampered by commonsense!

To all,
This is 'tremendous' material - not the best description, but I'm really grateful for your time. Keep 'em coming!

I should have said an incident needn't have happened - you can 'merely' have held your breath for a bit, so Airborne Aircrew, a copy of the pic would be appreciated.

My cock-up: While lifting a very important EOD load the chain got wrapped around the steering column when we took the strain. Guess I wasn't Mr Popular for that op:(

Wildenrath Air Show 1975. A couple of the lads had painted up a VW beetle to look like a German Polizeiwagen. They also borrowed a couple of Polizei uniforms....

The usual "Will the owner of car reg.... please move his car" over the tanoy, followed by "If you don't move it, we will!". Then a Wessex appears with the 'Polizeiwagen' slung underneath - the lads attempt to chase it in the German Polizei uniforms, much to the amusement of the Kraud.

Predictably, the Wessex then released the VW. But someone had misread the Op Order and it was released from a not inconsiderable height, building up an impressive speed in its terminal descent. Shortly after it struck the ground, a smoke grenade which had been primed to go off when the coffee jar, in which it was concealed, went off as planned in a cloud of coloured smoke.

But the coloured smoke then turned black and became rather intense. Something in the wreckage had set fire to the bone dry undergrowth in the target area, which was now burning quite merrily. The air show was suspended as the fire wagons bounced their way over to the far side of the aerodrome to put out the local forest fire which was rapidly developing....

The punters thought it was all part of the show, but OC Ops was not a happy bunny.

Late 1980/early 1990s, a CH-47 or a CH-53 was used to ferry a time expired Curtiss C-46, less the wings outboard of the engines, from Miami Airport's Cockroach Corner to a museum somewhere "up north".

Whatever method they used to keep the C-46 pointing in the direction of flight failed, it began to spin uncontrollably and was hastily dropped into a convenient patch of wasteland.

In the early 90s, Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles. 1.5 tons of explosives in the net for transportation to a quarry in the 'greens'. FIRE 1 caption illuminated. It was only a hot gas leak, could have been a shocker.

What about the Portakabin incident...... Load transported to HLS, put down safely and the door opened, 4 blokes got out......:eek:

Similar to the landrover job above. My ex-AAC convert to RAF flight commander (sadly not with us anymore) agreed a 'rapid response' team with the RUC which involved a RIB boat being underslung out of Enniskillen, straight onto the Loch with the team on the boat!! AND he did it once before we managed to put him right!

"We are allowed to put ANYTHING in a net" said the Army HHI to the enquiry team. Loose Scaffolding Poles actually fit through the holes in the net young man :mad: Made a modern art sculpture on the ground though.

Vague memory but something along the lines of:

"When we release the load it will be forward and right...."

Scratch one Rapier fire unit.

Early seventies; a trial to fly an Air Portable Baily Bridge.

This was a lightweight Baily Bridge designed to be placed across a river so that vehicles could cross unhindered. It was on an 80 ft strop and had two large plywood fins attacted to one end to encourage it to fly longways. It lifted OK and at about 40 knots it turned straight and it was so long that you could see the leading end through the bubbles. When you turned it would continue flying straight and then slowly turn and formate underneath you.

Trying to place it was a disaster. As soon as it lost airspeed it started spinning. We managed to bounce it off a covenient hillock a couple of times to slow it so that we could put it down without wrecking it.

The project was abandoned. Somebody decided that an assault across a river with a helicopter hovering at 100 ft with mutiple ZSU 23-4s firing at it was likely to be unsuccessful.

There was a good series of photographs in the 78 (Wessex) Sqn scrapbook which may still exist on 78 (Merlin).

They date from Aden (before my time!!) and seemed to have been printed from a cine film, as they were effectively a time-lapse sequence - of the lift (briefly) of a Scout.

Apparently the Wessex lost an engine in the transition with the Scout - overpitched and quite scary coning angle clearly visible - then Scout "pickled" and disappears from bottom of frame over 2 or 3 pictures as Wessex flies away. Cat 2 Scout becomes Cat 5 Scout!

Pilot alleged to be R****e B*****n?

In Post 2, TTN generously suggests that I have written a 28 Sqn history. Not really, just an account of some aspects of their reformation at Kai Tak in 1968.

I don't believe a Whirlwind was lost Cat 5 during 1968 in Hong Kong. XP332 was dunked in the oggin on 13 May 69 and and XR477 was lost in a fatal on 30 Oct 69. Over the years and with one exception IIRC (XP301), the six original Whirlwinds sent from Singapore were all lost.

I can confirm that an RN Wessex, which had forced landed in the jungle was stripped down and the main fuselage carcass lifted by a Belvedere. However, a serious swing developed and the Wessex was let go with the obvious results. This was 1965/6 in Borneo, possibly whilst the Wessex - a single engined Mk1 - was operating from Nanga Gaat. I'll try to find the details later.

Old Duffer