Helicopter down

[RickC Sniper]

One of those "What the hell was he thinking things."

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8963617-helicopter-crashes-installing-christmas-tree-in-auckland

Glad no one was hurt though.

[Jimbuna]

Very lucky (taken in context) :yep:

[TarJak]

Video shows how lucky he was: http://media.smh.com.au/news/world-news/helicopter-christmas-tree-crash-2790976.html

[Herr-Berbunch]

Vid is also at the bottom of the original link. Wow, if you're going to crash a helecopter that's the way to do it! Hope nobody got hurt from the debris - quite a lot of people nearby. :yep:

[TarJak]

Vid is also at the bottom of the original link. Wow, if you're going to crash a helecopter that's the way to do it! Hope nobody got hurt from the debris - quite a lot of people nearby. :yep:
True but the slow motion in the one I linked to show how much he was thrown about in the cockpit a little clearer than the OP.

[Herr-Berbunch]

True but the slow motion in the one I linked to show how much he was thrown about in the cockpit a little clearer than the OP.

Had problems watching that one, I'll try again in work later.

[Jimbuna]

Over in the blink of an eye...as quick as that :o

[Rockstar]

I don't think he ran into anything. I looked and looked but couldn't see any of the tower's cable stays even give a twitch when the helicopter buckled. There was a hoisting cable or something dangling from the left side of the aircraft which seemed tighten up just before it went down. Maybe it got caught up in the rotor wash.









.

[Osmium Steele]

Couple of years ago, a medivac pilot was doing touch an gos on the roof of a local hospital. He hit a wire and wnet down hard on the roof.

The instructor and he got out ok and ducked behind a low barrier on the roof as the helicopter melted in the flaming fuel. No ne was hurt.

All that remained was a flat metal slab and a few pieces of the main rotor that flew across the neighborhood.

[Oberon]

There's a video on the tubes showing a helicopter, a Chinook installing a monument on a bridge for the 1988 Olympics in South Korea, unfortunately just after unhooking the monument the Chinook descends and hits its rotors on the monument and smashes into the bridge and into the river. It's pretty horrific, needless to say the pilot and crew were killed, and out of respect for them I won't post the video here, but a quick search will find it.

This guy was very lucky.

[Jimbuna]

Rgr that :yep:

[RickC Sniper]

New footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhRrIXPD1t8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww1_rJrTsCU&feature=related
They are saying the guy on the ground flipped a cable attached to the helicopter and caused the crash.

[Jimbuna]

I couldn't see that but it may be my poor eyesight.

[Dowly]

I couldn't see that but it may be my poor eyesight.

On the second video RickC Sniper posted above your post, look for the right-hand guy
wearing the red vest. Just over his right shoulder you see a guy doing a yanking
motion just before the helo goes out of control. :hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

On the second video RickC Sniper posted above your post, look for the right-hand guy
wearing the red vest. Just over his right shoulder you see a guy doing a yanking
motion just before the helo goes out of control. :hmmm:

Ah, right....I was actually looking at the guy on the left :oops:

[Highbury]

On the second video RickC Sniper posted above your post, look for the right-hand guy
wearing the red vest. Just over his right shoulder you see a guy doing a yanking
motion just before the helo goes out of control. :hmmm:

The timing of that yank certainly makes it look like a possible cause, I hadn't spotted that until you pointed it out. I was too fixated on the pilot himself. He came quite a long way out of the cockpit before "falling" back into it. It looked like he may have had a lap belt but not shoulder straps on.. are they not required in NZ?

Either way, damn lucky nobody was seriously hurt.

[Jimbuna]

The timing of that yank certainly makes it look like a possible cause, I hadn't spotted that until you pointed it out. I was too fixated on the pilot himself. He came quite a long way out of the cockpit before "falling" back into it. It looked like he may have had a lap belt but not shoulder straps on.. are they not required in NZ?

Either way, damn lucky nobody was seriously hurt.

Rgr that :yep:

[Pisces]

In the last videos the sky is too bright to see it clearly. But if I look to my screen from the side a bit I see a faint line comming from the top waving a bit as the helo gets near.

In the first (OP) video link there is a straight vertical line (cable I presume) next to the pilar slowly drifting to the right before the helo get's entangled.

[RickC Sniper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI&feature=related

Pisces you are right.

Clear as can be in this clip.

There is a cable attached to the top of the tower and it loops down then back up to the belly of the helicopter. Probably a winch on the heli?

Anyway, that cable is too short to allow this heli to land without getting pulled into the blades. :06:

As the heli descends the part of the cable going up to the tower gets pulled closer to the heli.

At 1.09 - 1.11 you can see the busted cable dangling down just left of the tower.

1.46 shows the ground guy grabbing that cable and pulling on it and that causes the crash. He did not flip it, just jumped up a bit to grab it and that was it, but I suspect with no one touching the cable it still would have happened. The cable was too fricken short.

[Jimbuna]

Yes sir...that shows it to my poor vision :yep: