Comments on: Navy Helicopter Mishap Off Nine Mile Road

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 21:51:35 +0000

Engine blew up…had to do a controlled landing

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 20:24:51 +0000

Long time heli guy here.. That helicopter is a Bell product and nearly identical to the civilian version that so many news crews use. As to the accident pics, and having had to recover bodies from much worse crashes… Looks to me like they were doing an autorotation and the student yanked back on the cyclic too hard, causing contact with the tailboom. This typically leads to adverse yaw(the helicopter spins) and the main blades go every which way till they come off. The instructor is supposed to be covering the controls so it never gets this bad, but I guess he had an oops! Glad they walked!

By: RunningBear

RunningBear — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 04:06:00 +0000

hmmm….hard landing usually implies loss of vertical control and smashes up the landing skids, etc. but this….

the nose lower Plexiglas windows are still in place (didn’t) hit in the nose down attitude;

both upper nose Plexiglas windows are popped out as a fuselage distortion will cause;

neither landing skid is dirty, much less distorted (looks untouched) or bent, no overload from to high a vertical descent speed;

tailboom is broken but no dirt/ mud on the tail assembly and tail rotor is intact;

main rotor hub is detached and rotors are damaged/ broken from hub;

much debris in cockpit has landed in bottom (starboard) side of fuselage (not unusual after crash);

did this helo land?? vertically on it’s right side and not on the landing skids??

kudos to the crew walking away and again to the manufacturer for building a “tough bird”!

By: Dewayne

Dewayne — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 20:59:55 +0000

Oh, Yea, Bring that baby to us! We’ll fix her right on up!!!

By: bout done

bout done — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 20:33:31 +0000

Glad they were okay.

They likely won’t be practicing here much longer. Escambia is developing a site in Santa Rosa to trade for this site.

By: Lisa Watson

Lisa Watson — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 09:03:23 +0000

They are harder to fly than planes My Dad flew them all his life, and he was an instructor at Ft Rucker and other places for many years.

Accidents happen, especially with beginners. If there is much luck, everyone survives and the student learns not to make that particular mistake again.

These things are regulars going over my house in the evenings during the week, though I wish they’d change their flight path. Every time they fly over they mess up my TV, and they love to fly over LOTS on Thursday nights, my favorite TV day. It’s been a running family joke for years about how they know when I am on the phone in the evenings sitting outside for best reception, they fly over and I have to tell the person to hold on til the helicopter passes.

I’m glad these two are okay, hope no more mishaps happen, but I do admit that because I know they are student pilots on those things, I get nervous about being on their flight path.

By: Marshal

Marshal — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 00:47:24 +0000

Glad everyone’s ok. This bird was painted at the place I work not to long ago. Kinda scary seeing a bird that I may have worked on go down

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 00:17:33 +0000

This is why it is called training, the student learns from his mistakes or experiences equipment failure before he or she goes into a real deployment situation. I have not heard a copter flying today (I’m in the flight path) now I know why. They might be in the process of a major equipment inspection, hence grounding them for a short while, but I doubt it, I probably just haven’t heard them. Go Navy!

By: Elmo

Elmo — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 22:32:41 +0000

I don’t know which manufacturer fabricates these military helicopters now but I can honestly say they’re very well built. I have seen or read of several mishaps over many years pertaining to training the new pilots in this modern model and prior models helicopters. Note: Trainer Pilot`s Skills/Decisions saved lives! I have read about atmosphere conditions, cross winds, wind gust, down drafts and a whole lot less reaction time limit. I`m sure I missed many more, so I always think about all that when I see a helicopter flying in the sky and I now realize all the skills it must demand to pilot that aircraft. In my eyes Life Flight pilots, and other civil rescue helicopter pilots are among the “Best of the Best” of pilots!

PS-Think about it? There is a logical reason why designers argued that the helicopter wasn’t supposed to fly in the first place!

By: SHO-NUFF

SHO-NUFF — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 18:29:53 +0000

That I’ll Buff right out!

Glad it worked out for everyone involved.