Posted on 03/18/2014 8:31:24 AM PDT by llevrok
Lots of veteran pilots from the middle east campaigns do fly, but lots of civilian trained cyclic jockeys are around too.
My father had told me of one time when the turnshaft failed on his tail-rotor (he was flying Bell 47g)..
He was lucky enough that he had altitude and forward speed, and there was a nearby airport.. he flew onto the runway with headspeed (AoA) and did an airplane landing on skids (no wheels)..
Sounds like they had a tail-rotor failure upon takeoff.. no momentum and no control :/
the helo was shared with KING TV. Twitter feeds from KOMO are hinting these may be contractors or non KOMO employees.
I was working in NYC when a PanAm passenger helicopter crashed on lift off from their former head quarters (42d and lex). That ended take off/landings from NYC building tops (may have resumed by now. that was almost 40 years ago)
Also.. just read that it was a “small” helicopter... Don’t News media usually use Bell Rangers? I cannot imagine them using a Robinson22/44 (neither should have ever gotten FAA acceptance.. both are junk :p).
apparently their main helo was being retro fitted for some new gear and this was a leased replacement. No one is suggesting pilot error due to that at this point. Well skilled pilots (pilot “known” to local viewers for many years)
From the quick clip they gave.. it may have been a Hughs 500.. that is NOT “small.. it is normal for civilian use... I could be way off, but not enough time on the vid.... also, want to send my respect to to pilot and crew/newsman onboard. I hear there is 1 more that was injured (from one of the cars?).. I hope he is able to survive..
Here at FR, I know he will receive many prayers.
From the reports, I heard there were 3 cars that were damaged.. what happened to the others? I am sure they had no time (nor clue) what was about to hit from above. Any that got out of that situation is lucky.
crap.. pilot didn’t even have alt to do auto-rotation :/
These newscasters are SO narrow minded.. I swear.. before they should be able to report on a certain subject, they should have to go through it themselves... heck, they already have the mmoney to put them through the training :/
from news source: “Has been finded”... wtf?!
This terrible reporting reminds me of another news chopper accident (think it was about 5 years ago).. 2 news choppers ran into each other :/ I still have a pic from that :/
a general curse of on air types is they feel a need to talk when the camera is on, often filling air w/o knowing what they are saying, especially in times of breaking news.
RIP.
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