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Helicopter down in the Solomon Islands

"TWO expatriate pilots escaped death when their helicopter made a forced landing on St Joseph’s Tenaru School rice farm yesterday morning.
It’s believed the chopper developed engine problem after taking off from the nearby Honiara International Airport".
Can't find any more, anyone know anything?

Are the pilots injured at all? I have mates flying on that contract...

It wasn't a RAMSI helicopter.

Read all about it here:

Quote:

Helicopter forced to land on rice farm: Pilots unhurt

TWO expatriate pilots escaped death when their helicopter made a forced landing on St Joseph’s Tenaru School rice farm yesterday morning.
It’s believed the chopper developed engine problem after taking off from the nearby Honiara International Airport.

An eye witness Allan Woria told the Solomon Star at the scene, the helicopter uncontrollably tumbled to the ground.

“I was still trying to get myself out of bed at about 7 am when the incident happened,” he said.

“I heard the roaring sound of the helicopter approaching Tenaru, but the engine sound was very unusual.

“One can tell by the engine sound that something was wrong.”

Mr Woria said he jumped out to investigate and saw the chopper spiralling uncontrollably to the ground.

“It looks to me like the pilots were trying their best to control the chopper but really can’t,” he said.

He said the chopper must have developed mechanical problems after it took off from the Henderson airport.

“The chopper whirled as it approached the clear farm land.

“It came down uncontrollably and landed with its nose before its tail tumbled on the ground and broke.”

Mr Woria said few minutes later, the two pilots emerged from the chopper’s cockpit.

“They walked out looking a bit numbed and panic but were not hurt,” he said.

He said the two went out and walked around the cactus chopper to investigate the damage.

When Solomon Star visited the site, the chopper was already dismantled and taken away in a truck.

Attempts to identify the owners of the helicopter yesterday proved futile.

The Civil Aviation Division confirmed the incident but refused to give details and who owns the chopper.

“We will not give any information whatsoever to the media until we finish our investigation,” a spokesman insisted last night.

PDL Toll, which operates helicopters RAMSI’s been using to fly officials to remote locations, said the chopper is not theirs.

Quote:

He said the two went out and walked around the cactus chopper to investigate the damage.

What exactly is a 'cactus chopper'? Something like a salad shredder on a larger scale? Is there a new species of jungle cacti there near Honiara? :}

Seriously, very good to hear that everyone is alright.

In this case, "cactus" is part of the Latin phrase "cactus phuctus" which approximates to "it's broken."

Thus a "cactus chopper" is an unserviceable helicopter.:8

Mmmmm ....

"Cactus" .... is a particularly australian slang for something that is 'NQR' (not quite right) usually involves being bent in shape with sticking out sharp bits.

"FKD" ... is another technical term meaning 'not now working at all'.

etcetera .... you get the drift eh?

:}

Quote:

"Cactus" .... is a particularly australian slang for something that is 'NQR' (not quite right) usually involves being bent in shape with sticking out sharp bits.

"FKD" ... is another technical term meaning 'not now working at all'.

quite often used with the word "up" following, I.E. Ar*e UP.

and can often be used with the word, "Properly" preceeding, when it's real serious.

but then to twist this one a bit,

Quote:

Thus a "cactus chopper" is an unserviceable helicopter

may well be what we call a prickly d*ck.

cheers tet

So after all that, what caused the crash?

Quote:

It hit a cactus.

No damned cactus in the Solomon Islands. Seriously though; does anybody know who was flying it as internet from Guadalcanal is either slow or non-existant? Was it one of the Hubbards?

If it was not one of the RAMSI contracted helicopters; there is only ONE other helicopter operator there!

cheers,

800

I think you will find the incident happened in July and all the photo in the paper showed was the tyre tracks in the paddock after the truck picked the machine up. The local being interview was probably speaking pidgen, hence the cactus statement.
And yes the internet is at best dial up speeds.

LHS

Mmmm ...

...... The local being interview was probably speaking pidgen, hence the cactus statement. ....

Would not the machine then have gone "Buggarup" rather than 'cactus' ?

SI pigeon not always the same fella as PNG pigeon!

Mmm ...

Didn't know that ... never been to SI ... Thanks :O