Syrian Helicopter Reportedly Downed by Rebels Over Idlib (Awesome Video of Mid-Air Disintegration)

NBC News ^ | October 18, 2012 | Staff

[Chainmail]

"Could the fuel lead to an explosion like this?"

Way too big, too energetic. Jet fuel/air is much less explosive than gasoline/air and if it had been the fuel it would have been a much smaller detonation. This looked like the air burst of an aircraft bomb.

[dps.inspect]

yup!!

[TADSLOS]

Could have been a combination of atomized fuel spraying from a ruptured fuel line and on board ordnance exploding. Unusual though. Most helicopter shoot downs involve damage to flight control components and the aircraft just drops and spins to the ground.

[ken5050]

That’s one way to enforce a “no-fly” zone..

[driftdiver]

I used to know someone who grew up in Libya because her father was stationed there with the State Dept. She left as a young teenager as part of an evacuation in the late 70s. At that time the people there loved Americans for the most part, except for the few radicals.

The radicals have had a generation to cement their position and are willing to kill anyone who disagrees. The fact that we are now helping the radicals is surreal.

[Born to Conserve]

“Could the fuel lead to an explosion like this?”

That is a fuel/air explosion you see, but it was atomized by a high explosive, a lot of it — probably ordinance they were carrying was armed and rattling around as they tumbled.

BANG.

[JAKraig]

What I want to know is why is it that we choose sides in this civil war? Why is it that we want to help the Jihadist to win control of a country with sophisticated weaponry and chemical weapons? At least the Assad government was stable.

Heaven help us.

[meyer]

The radicals have had a generation to cement their position and are willing to kill anyone who disagrees. The fact that we are now helping the radicals is surreal.

Their radicals sound just like our democrats. Birds of a feather...

[A.A. Cunningham]

ordinance

ordnance

[SaraJohnson]

Hooray for Al Queda? We need more “democracy” islam nations in the Middle East!!! They are slaughtering the Christians and Americans and that has to be a good thing! :(

[doorgunner69]

Ordnance. You got that peeve too, huh?

That ain't it, but you should have seen the bomb dump at Chu Lai. Takes a lot to keep three squadrons of F-4s fed.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks lbryce.

[Straight Vermonter]

Just my amateur observation but usually HE gives a smokey grey explosion while fuel will give you the “Hollywood” orange fire ball.

[Chainmail]

HE usually has a large fireball but on the ground dust often obscures it from view. If you have seen some of the video of the IDEs used in Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ll usually see large fireballs from the large quantities of explosives used. That explosion says “HE” to me and I have been on both ends of that stuff much of my life.