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Edgygimp t1_je9avxn wrote

That's worrying. Not to be all doom n gloom but helicopter crashes are quite often lethal.

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theoverniter t1_jeackeo wrote

I grew up with an AF pilot dad and coincidentally ended up in a Navy helo squadron myself. My dad lost so many friends to helo crashes since the 70s, this one was probably the worst.

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hghpandaman t1_jebfmlb wrote

I love aviation, but you couldn't pay me to get on a helicopter. At least a plane can glide if the engine fails...

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tjeepdrv2 t1_jebmbqc wrote

A helicopter can safely land, as long as it's high enough up when the engine fails.

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hghpandaman t1_jef3nae wrote

well shit..TIL. Still a bit uneasy about flying on them

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tmaccd t1_je8v13h wrote

More details from wkdz https://www.wkdzradio.com/2023/03/29/multiple-people-killed-in-trigg-county-helicopter-crashes/news-edge/

Also, WTF is this (second picture from above news report)? Why does it look like a giant alien robot insect?

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bakachog t1_je9bqf2 wrote

>WTF is this

Kinda looks like the accessory section module of one of the engines.

https://i.imgur.com/blhYs87.png

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Rs90 t1_jeag9dg wrote

God I love the internet. In a single comment we jumped from "alien robot insect" to "engine module" lol. Like jumpin from mysticism to aeronautics instantly.

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BancheroBot t1_jeanudx wrote

Well, certain parts of the internet. Don't think the youtube comment section would have been able to make the jump from comment 1 to comment 2

On youtube, I bet comment 1 would have sparked a 3 way argument about complete bullshit with all 3 people being wrong

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Backdoor_Delivery t1_jeawzz7 wrote

And a fourth that somehow figured out the Roswell landings, JFK assassination and this event are all linked. Give it a week and it’ll be a staple over at r/conspiracies.

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DocWhirlyBird t1_je9qehj wrote

That orange hose is a fuel line to the engine

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UnderwaterRobot t1_je9yk0r wrote

It's actually the air supply for the engine starter

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DocWhirlyBird t1_jea2vf6 wrote

No, it's the fuel inlet hose that attaches to the fuel boost pump.

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Miffers t1_jea5wq8 wrote

There were a lot of good points in this debate. Hard to choose a winner.

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GreenStrong t1_jea7kh2 wrote

They're all wrong. The orange hose is the helicopter's bile duct, which carries digestive enzymes from its liver to its stomach.

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UnderwaterRobot t1_jea6biv wrote

The thin line or the thick one? I should have clarified

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DocWhirlyBird t1_jea6gz0 wrote

I was talking about the fat orange one off to the left

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UnderwaterRobot t1_jea6r3y wrote

Yeah that one is an air supply. I was a 15T. the fuel supply is all solid line

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DedRonin t1_jea7jqq wrote

Pretty sure that's the main fuel line. Worked on T700s for six years.

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mr_potatoface t1_jeaniba wrote

Y'all are making other readers feel really confident in our aviation mechanics, I'm sure. Air supply? Fuel supply? Who knows? Who cares? Mechanics don't fly, once it gets out of the bay it's someone elses problem.

0

DedRonin t1_jeaql59 wrote

It's a mechanics problem if the plane they worked on crashes.

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Klutzy-Addition5003 t1_je9mi8o wrote

I remember turning on the news to see a similar article about a military training accident. My ex husband was in the location of the accident and I had known he was training the night prior when the accident happened. I waited for hours crying my eyes out to hear word. He ended up being fine, physically but was traumatized forever after the incident.

It still baffles me that I found out he might be dead from an article like this. We have been divorced for almost 10 years now and I still think about it whenever I see these news stories.

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sessafresh t1_je9zmnq wrote

My wife is a retired Army helicopter pilot and stories like this are absolutely devastating Nine people gone! My heart!

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unlolful t1_jeafn0b wrote

On one of my first trips out to sea on the Abraham Lincoln we were prepping for a future deployment. We had some of the air group on board and we were practicing night ops off the San Diego coast. I had spent enough time listening to the catapults to know how they sound they make. I was lin my bunk and trying to get some sleep/rest which is difficult to do with that shit happening. On deployment you're often so damn tired you learn to sleep thru it. So I'm just laying in the bunk and notice the sound of that catapult wasnt right. A few seconds later and alarms start going off. An F18 was being launched and we had a cold cat situation. Guy never got enough speed to get the plane in the air. He went right into the drink. We spent quite a while searching for him along with other boats in the battle group but I don't think he was ever found. Still live in San Diego and I've talked with some former navy pilots and they all relate. I don't remember the guys name but a lot of those older pilots say they probably knew him.

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LeicaM6guy t1_je9onu1 wrote

Just a heads up - if you know anything about who was involved, this isn't the place to talk about it.

It'd be really shitty to find out your family member died on Reddit.

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Boat-Putrid t1_jea0bs8 wrote

>Just a heads up - if you know anything about who was involved, this isn't the place to talk about it. > >It'd be really shitty to find out your family member died on Reddit.

Get off your high horse - it's shitty finding out no matter the source

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CatLords t1_jea92mc wrote

I would find out from service men, rather than some guy named butt_muncher_420

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29daysuntiltacos t1_je9j3vr wrote

Wasn’t there a Blackhawk crash in Alabama a month or two ago as well or am I thinking of something else?

Tragic to have this happen, I hope the families can find some peace

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FriendlyBlanket t1_jeamkt4 wrote

I swear I hear about an army helo crashing every month.

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SnooMemesjellies7469 t1_jeazlm3 wrote

I work with helicopter transmission parts. Helos are insanely complex and literally anything will make them crash.

There are five opposing forces that need to be kept in balance and the pilot can only worry about three at a time.

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CatLords t1_je8wp8i wrote

Army Aviation seems particularly dangerous compared to the other branches.

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sagaxwiki t1_je9k50b wrote

Besides the fact that helicopters are inherently less safe than fixed wing aircraft, they also tend to operate nearer to the ground giving pilots less time to react when something goes wrong. The other services also have relatively frequent rotary wing accidents, but the Army has a lot more helicopters and this more accidents.

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jtmarshiii t1_jebg46c wrote

Good thing they do training runs in the middle of towns and cities... I wish they'd stop. Someone posted a drill being run in the heart of San Diego? and all I thought was one of these birds is going to go down and take out a apartment.

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M_H_M_F t1_je9z0ll wrote

Frankly it's on heli's which are normally less safe than fixed wing, or Ospreys which while look cool, inherently just suck.

0

-Raskyl t1_jea4rsp wrote

Ospreys actually have a really good track record after the initial issues. Probably better than helicopters.

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Pollymath t1_jeams68 wrote

Probably because they don't spend as much time loitering, and the can taxi without being off the ground. From what I hear, V-22 pilots really do respect their craft far more than any other pilot because the vehicles scare the shit of them.

Our local small airport is a frequent stop-over for many military aircraft and last time I watched a group of Blackhawk and Apache take off together they taxied, in the air, on a path usually used by fixed wing, including turns, then ran down the runway at low alt before taking off...again, like fixed wing.

While it was cool, it just seemed kind of unnecessary.

Helos are fucking badass but I have some concerns about how much we use them for mundane training tasks, especially in groups.

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jtmarshiii t1_jebgxkp wrote

Unnecessary to follow airport traffic patterns? Hate to fly to that airport if I didn't know where or how aircrafter where departing. If a small uncontrolled airport its more important since unaware pilots have no tower to tell you that a heli just jumped up and took off from the apron.

Happens at my airport with private helos and paramotors all the time and it sucks. You line up for departure and you see out of the corner of your eye something taking off and cutting near the runway. Yes, I have reported them to FAA for what it is worth.

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deaddonkey t1_je9d28j wrote

Blackhawks have a very nasty habit of doing this too

Edit; ok guys Blackhawks are a safe helicopter that rarely crashes because they are cool and black, you are right

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d_wib t1_je9mslr wrote

I mean the Air Force flies the Pave Hawk which is more or less the same thing. I don’t think it’d be an issue with the airframe

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Jean-Rasczak t1_je9vzvs wrote

We used to call em Crashhawks when I was in

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deaddonkey t1_jeazmxi wrote

Yeah I’m getting downvoted but they factually have a shitload of crashes, I think some people don’t even realise this happens several times per year every year for the last 3 decades

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Jean-Rasczak t1_jebb1z1 wrote

The seats are meant to collapse in the event of hard landings and crashes. I always felts unsafe in one those and the shithooks

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MNWNM t1_jec4ozc wrote

To be fair, the Black Hawk that crashed last month in Alabama was an A model, which hasn't been produced since 1989. It was flown and maintained by a National Guard division, which often gets hand-me-downs from the Army. For a helicopter this old, its safety is largely dependent on how well it's maintained. Parts do degrade and break.

The helicopter that crashed today was an HH-60, a Medevac model. They collided in the air under NVG conditions, which is inherently dangerous because of the limited scope of viewing range due to the goggles. A collision like this doesn't reflect poorly on the safety of the airframe itself, but I would question if any C&W (caution and warning) systems alerted the pilots of the imminent collision. Investigators will also be looking heavily into the pilot's training record, and if proper flight protocols were followed leading up to the crash.

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Edward_Snowcone t1_je9vjl3 wrote

Yeah, not nearly as much as the osprey the marines use.

Hell, even the Chinooks the army uses have a bleak track record. Blackhawks are pretty decent birds

0

CW1DR5H5I64A t1_je9vx3f wrote

The Osprey has one of the safest flight records of any airframe. They had a rough patch when they were initially adopted, but that was mostly pilot error. Once they got better training programs it has not had issues.

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Edward_Snowcone t1_je9yvmi wrote

Alright I did look it up, your right. I think my perception was skewed by the initial flight testing having lots of crashes. My bad

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__Arty__ t1_jea45hy wrote

That was a big thing during the initial trials of the Osprey. It had a handful of really high profile accidents and the media reported it as this insane death trap that killed anyone that looked at it.

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C-c-c-comboBreaker17 t1_je9wjt4 wrote

Transport helicopters are meant to be disposable. There's a reason we made so many.

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xiacexi t1_je8x9j4 wrote

How did they collide, wth?

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zeromadcowz t1_je9zhu4 wrote

I presume they tried to occupy the same space.

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SalemsTrials t1_jeadoil wrote

Listen here you little shit

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mr_potatoface t1_jeanott wrote

That probably didn't kill them though. It was probably the hitting of the ground that did that.

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billdb t1_jebgpfi wrote

I know this is a joke but if they collided mid-air, it's actually pretty plausible it was the collision that killed them

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DIDiMISSsomethin t1_je9voqr wrote

I feel like I see more military crashing aircraft from routine training exercises than in combat. Does anyone know if there's data on that?

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C-c-c-comboBreaker17 t1_je9wem7 wrote

Well, there's not exactly a lot of high intensity combat going on in the US.

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blamdin t1_jea78la wrote

US Public schools have entered the chat

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Mycopixel t1_jec4vfr wrote

I dunno man, that just seems like extreme hide and seek to me

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DIDiMISSsomethin t1_jeb0swt wrote

In the US, yeah, but we've been at war for most of the past century and have 600 military bases overseas.

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C-c-c-comboBreaker17 t1_jeb0z7c wrote

And most of those wars have been against insurgents and guerillas without major anti-aircraft power.

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DIDiMISSsomethin t1_jebl06w wrote

To be fair, the domestic routine exercises that are crashing don't have those either

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C-c-c-comboBreaker17 t1_jed8r64 wrote

Transport helicopters are dangerous. Fly a lot of helicopters and have them do dangerous maneuvers and eventually you'll have a crash. In an actual war you expect to lose helicopters basically constantly. They're buses for the troops, and they're not meant to be particularly survivable.

Hell, we expected to lose basically every A-10 warthog in minutes if the US went to war with the Soviet Union. And helicopters are slower, fly lower, and they're more fragile.

Of course, none of that would've mattered. The idea was that the conventional war would probably only last until the nukes started to fall.

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GreenStrong t1_jea8bzi wrote

There is data on it. Helicopters are inherently dangerous, and they have to practice flying low and fast in the dark, and inserting troops in dense groups. If they don't practice those things, they'll face increased risks on the battlefield. That isn't to say they can't do better with safety, but they have a bona fide need to practice dangerous flying.

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Jeffery_G t1_je9r8ps wrote

We got to jump from a Blackhawk years ago. I respect the aircraft and hope for the best outcomes for these troops.

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Arrantsky t1_jebi61x wrote

Love Hate relationship with helicopters in general and the Blackhawk in particular. Rode the Black bus in Iraq, it was better than convoys. Still feel nervous when I smell hydraulic fluid.

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Ancient_Artichoke555 t1_jean9m8 wrote

Woah🫣

Condolences and empathy to the families who’s loved one is not returning home to them.

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Buschwerks t1_jea97hb wrote

Tis a reason we call them crash hawks im the Army....

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pandas795 t1_jeaad41 wrote

It's been reported they were no survivors 💔

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Sir-Kevly t1_jechotq wrote

It's almost as if it's not a good idea to keep using helicopters from the 70's.

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gif_smuggler t1_jecoed2 wrote

Waiting for the Flight Channel video to drop on YouTube.

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blaze92x45 t1_jeb50jz wrote

The UH60 is a pretty old airframe at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if after 2 decades of a failing war put way too much stress on the airframe. That and maintenance slip ups could be to blame for the crash. But given it was two blackhawks it's possible it was a mid air collision.

That said we should wait for the crash report before coming to conclusions.

0

mikelo22 t1_je8widq wrote

It sure seems like I hear about these things crashing all the time. This is the 21st century, and this is still the best we can come up with?

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IDropFatLogs t1_je90dgx wrote

When I was in the Army working on helicopters Blackhawks had the name crashhawk or lawn dart. Actually is a very good airframe we just have a ton of them and that translates to more mishaps.

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[deleted] t1_je8whvt wrote

[removed]

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