BBC report of Chinook 'unplanned landing', mentions wirestrike
 

BBC Wales news story

"A Chinook helicopter was forced to make an unplanned landing on Carmarthenshire farmland, Ministry of Defence officials have confirmed.The MoD said the incident happened on Tuesday evening near Llangynin, and the twin-engine aircraft crew suffered "minor injuries".

A suspect "wire strike" is thought to be responsible for the heavy-lifting helicopter coming down in the area.

Military chiefs said the Chinook was on a training exercise at the time.

The helicopter's crew have remained with the aircraft to maintain security until it can be recovered."

Chinook Power Line Strike Wales
 

I hope all are ok.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https...tn__=%2CmH-R&c[0]=AT2PZSeCmz_y3SwoEwUZJcWzdZTAjCw7KuEeM1RrGZp2sKlwasevgEZaK6w TI_ncGT4Qooe0axZzj10ViR-JKD_4WZS0PgrFuQabsbXaPK194f_iHZukc0oRZ7HEd_o1rjjjQgJi_7Zxb7Y rqJdqFTZROGTBvZKJthJeLZm0XLxPaGz7SSffCjM0wI364Wt2FdSE7CP00D8 73i15HQ

Report in the local rag Wales on line, report won't let you copy the link. All seem to be ok but the chinook had to at least stay last night.

Can't make that link work, KPax.

Here's another report, from Forces Net.
https://www.forces.net/news/chinook-...after-incident

The picture seems to show a landing without benefit of wheels, which might belie the RAF's "minor damage". The report also mentions "striking power lines". But no serious injuries, thankfully.

Oops

airsound

All wheels are present in the pic in your link...

The gear appears down to me! Your link describes a broken cockpit windscreen due to a wire strike.

The Chinook is fixed gear. The question would be whether they tore it off. I did not view the video, but it sounds like others see the gear still intact.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f0d13636b.jpeg

The crew of that were very lucky they weren’t flying six feet lower!

Whilst working for the company that probably owns the wires they hit, we were given a look at a programme which was available to the military showing the location of all High Voltage (11kV and above) overhead wires. I take it that it isn't in widespread use...

Those three wire strikes look like mine so that would be an 11 KV medium voltage cable assembly, the type used to feed farms etc. Not marked on any map apart from the installer's. Almost impossible to see low level against a dark background.


They believed me so that must be right.

Are our helicopters not fitted with cable cutters then?
Apologies for a potentially stupid question from an aging spotter.....

Wouldn't that be a running landing:E

CG

Yes, an "interesting" one, with no rotors!

So, what now ?

Repair it in situ, truck it back to base or see who has an Mi-26 available for a lifting job ?

Yup, looks like an 11kv cable. Must have been flying v low.

Also intriguing to note the strike angle - were they banking or flying along a hill when they struck the cables?

​

A 2013 paper covering the MoD Helicopter Safety Enhancement Programme stated,

There is currently no wire cutter kit developed for the Chinook and there are no known plans to develop one. The cost and timescale associated with introducing this capability suggest that an alternative means of protecting the aircraft against wire strike may be a better option. Assessment of a tablet based moving map capability is underway, which would have details of known wires and obstacles overlaid. The key to this type of system is considered to be an effective means of alerting the aircrew to the presence of wires without them having to spend prolonged periods “eyes-in”.

I hope the ODH found suitable mitigation to cover the wire strike risk when he signed off on the ALARP safety statement.

DV

I seem to remember a wire detector developed for the Puma and trialled on the OCU that consisted of a ring of warning lights, they detected the current flowing through the wires, all went well flying towards wires on the tests and detecting them, however I seem to remember as they were leaving the grid cut the juice and yup you guessed right.

Funny routing to Devon ;)

Obviously a very strong crosswind :-)

Here you go a cheap detector

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...light-detector

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/...fig1_303045042