US helicopter crash lands in Iraq

[hussar]

A US Army helicopter has crashed near the town of Tikrit in Iraq and burst into flames, injuring at least one person, witnesses have said.

There was no immediate explanation for the crash but some reports say the helicopter, was hit by ground fire.

Witnesses said the helicopter went down in a field and smoke could be seen rising from it.

Tikrit, the home town of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, has seen continued resistance to US forces.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3213981.stm

[La_Serpiente]

1. If they were hit

it would be amazing. They now have the technology to take out aircraft.

[Wickerman]

2. I may be wrong

but my nephew, who flies 'em told me a lucky rifle shot to either rotor at a reasonably close ronage could send you to the ground. For my own piece of mind I hope someone can correct me but it seems that was a problem in 'nam.

[trumad]

3. They haven't seen anything yet

I guarantee the er...Saddam Loyalist's :eyes: have a whole bunch up their sleeves...

[Aidoneus]

6. that depends

The Chechens for example have been able to down dozens and dozens of military helicopters of the Russian invaders with more or less low-tech methods (but highly refined tactics and skill). If there's a vulnerable part on the craft, it could probably be brought down with AKs or a rifle shot if it hits a fuel tank or something (or hits the pilot), otherwise an RPG/mortar(if it's a lucky hit)/anti-tank/Stingers could drop it as well. Of the three former, the Iraqi resistance is known to possess and use so far, I don't know if the Iraqi army had any supplies of Stingers or other semi-light anti-air weapons lying around that the resistance could use..

Fighter jets themselves are more difficult.

[htuttle]

7. During the war in Afghanistan

Afghani mujahideen fighters discovered that they could take out one of the Russian's 'Hind' helicopters with a rifleshot if they hit it right on the fuel filler hatch area.

Unfortunately for the Russians, the fuel filler hatch was squarely in the middle of the big red star on the passenger side of the helicopter, effectively making it a big, painted target on the side of the chopper.


I do not know whether there are equivalent 'sweet spots' on US helicopters, but I can guarantee you that lots of Iraqis are trying to find out right now.

[Pale_Rider]

23. I believe it took the Viet Cong awhile ...

... before they could take down helicopters. They had to learn to lead the fire into the copter's path. It will be interesting if a RPG took down the Black Hawk.

[htuttle]

4. Why 'crash lands' instead of 'crashes'?

It hit the ground and burst into flames. How is that a 'crash landing' instead of a 'crash'?

Is it like jelly toast, where if it hits the ground jelly-side up (landing-skid-side down, rotor-side up), then it's a 'crash landing' instead of a 'crash'?

Just unwinding a little spin...

[0007]

10. Thanks for clearing up that point -

So in other words it wasn't a crash landing. The US helicopter crashed....

[KeepItReal]

25. Blackhawk was designed with hard landings in mind...

It was made that way to protect the crew. If a Blackhawk ever ran into trouble, the pilots just have to make sure it goes down on its belly.

Unfortunately the initial roll-out of this helicopter was problematic and they had the nickname "Crashhawks"...

Crash vs. Crash Landing... If it ended up on its belly...I'd call it a crash landing. Any other way would mean the pilots didn't have control and that would be a crash in my book.

[SoCalDem]

31. They used to say "hard landing"

maybe this was just a bit harder than normal....like a 3 minute egg, instead of a 2 minute one.

[Sagan]

5. I wonder if this was one of the pipeline patrols...

I said this would happen to them, if so.

But, of course, we'll hear no more than this little blurb.

[leftchick]

8. A little more detail at this link....

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/44E81869-CFE9-49AE-9554-8CBCBE5F9C1F.htm

<snip>
A doctor said the injured crew member was suffering from shrapnel wounds in both the arms and legs, implying the helicopter may have been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade or mortar round.

The chopper was seen by an AFP photographer trailing smoke minutes after a loud explosion. The sound of small arms fire was also heard from the direction of the emergency landing, the French news agency reported.

[hussar]

9. Picture of incident and Reuters link

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BMR3IF55EAKROCRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&storyID=3689153

[bahrbearian]

11. Is that what they look like when they land??

[Judi Lynn]

12. Same event, different shot

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=191085

[jiacinto]

18. How could anyone survive that?

nt

[Pale_Rider]

24. A combination of ...

... autogyration, low altitude and a bit of luck. Looks like the Black Hawk is in relatively good structural shape given a 'crash-landing'.

[psychopomp]

26. Off-topic

That countryside looks *beautiful.*

[pfitz59]

32. Sure...lots of trees and bushes..........

How long before defoliation to follow? "Can't have all that camoflage, can we?"

[IndianaGreen]

21. BBC updated its headline: US army helicopter downed in Iraq

Five soldiers were injured but have been safely evacuated, US officials say.

<snip>

"A helicopter did go down," US Captain Jefferson Wolfe said, according to the Associated Press. "We can confirm it. It was a Black Hawk. We are investigating."

Another US military spokesperson said a rocket-propelled grenade had brought the helicopter down.

[kalian]

13. They were shot down...

cut through the spin...

http://www.msnbc.com/news/default.asp

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Wolfowitz had just left Tikrit a few hours earlier

I guess the Iraqi Resistance wanted to bid him a bon voyage.

[kalian]

15. Was he there...?

Hmmm, I thought that he was here in the States. Guess he has to review
the newly conquered turf for the greater...nevermind... :eyes:

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. He's been in Iraq since mid-week

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=3&u=/ap/20031025/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_helicopter

U.S. Helicopter Goes Down Near Tikrit

<snip>

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, on a three-day tour of Iraq, was in Tikrit earlier Saturday visiting the main U.S. garrison there. He left the city hours before the helicopter was shot down and was in the northern city of Kirkuk, U.S. officials said.

[jenk]

17. MSNBC reporting 5 injured in apparent RPG attack

.

[Skittles]

19. I hope they were injured and not killed . .

I don't believe a damn thing "the authorities" say. I hope these guys will be OK.

[leftchick]

20. yahoo link...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20031025/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

<snip>
The downing, apparently by a rocket-propelled grenade, raised concerns that insurgents' attacks on U.S. soldiers were getting more sophisticated even as they grow more frequent. The number of attacks on American troops in Iraq has been inching up to 26 a day recently.

Two helicopters were flying when the second one in the formation was hit by a projectile, believed to be a RPG, witnesses said. An AP reporter at a U.S. base several hundred yards away saw the striken aircraft spin out of control in the air then fall to the ground.

[IndianaGreen]

22. Additional info from Al-Jazeera

A doctor said one of those injured was suffering from shrapnel wounds in both the arms and legs.

“A helicopter did go down in Tikrit. I do not know if it was a controlled landing. Five people were wounded. It was an RPG attack,” the spokesperson said.

The chopper was seen by an AFP photographer trailing smoke minutes after a loud explosion. The sound of small arms fire was also heard from the direction of the emergency landing, the French news agency reported.

Other attacks

Elsewhere, The US military confirmed three soldiers were wounded in a bomb attack in Baghdad.

Captain Ty Wilson of the 1st Armoured Division said a makeshift bomb, possibly a mortar round detonated by remote control, exploded at dawn on Saturday, on an exit ramp off a highway in the southwest of the capital.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/44E81869-CFE9-49AE-9554-8CBCBE5F9C1F.htm

[muchacho]

27. Black Hawk Down in Iraq, One U.S. Soldier Wounded

Black Hawk Down in Iraq, One U.S. Soldier Wounded

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter which came down near Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s hometown of Tikrit on Saturday, wounding one American soldier.

Initial reports had said five soldiers were wounded.

As the aircraft blazed on the ground within sight of a major U.S. base, soldiers told a Reuters photographer at the scene that a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) hit it in the air. But a U.S. military spokeswoman in Baghdad said it was unclear what brought it down, only that RPGs were fired on the wreck.

"After the aircraft was on the ground, it was attacked with RPGs," she said, saying it was "presently not known" what brought the Black Hawk down.

She said only one soldier was wounded among the crew of five who were rescued by a second helicopter from green, low-lying farmland about three km (two miles) east of the U.S. military base.

Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj heard a loud bang before the helicopter fell from the sky.

Rocket attacks are a daily fact of life for the U.S. forces on the ground. But there has been only one report of hostile fire bringing down aircraft since major combat was declared over on May 1, despite American fears about the availability of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles in Iraq (news - web sites).

<more>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20031025/ts_nm/iraq_usa_helicopter_dc

[DivinBreuvage]

34. First they said five were wounded, now they say only one...

Does that mean that four of them have since died of their injuries?

Françoise

[rocktivity]

28. According to CNN (6PMEST) the helicopter "went down"

and then "took on enemy fire." Kind of like how Jessica Lynch's combat unit "blundered" into an ambush.


rocknation

[dArKeR]

30. About 15 hours later CNN TV still reporting 'Helicopter on ground

shot at.' I heard this myself.

TGM:
An Associated Press reporter at a U.S. base several hundred metres away saw the stricken aircraft spin out of control in the air before falling to the ground.

http://theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031025.wchop1025_2/BNStory/International/

[dArKeR]

29. Do you remember this first story the first days of the Butchering

when a massive force of Black Hawks went on their first mission? The pilots reported that it was so intense and dangerous they all aborted the mission without even coming close to indentifying a target.

Then I never saw another story about a BH on a mission.

The report also said how these are great craft for this, this, this, that... but have no armor so they can be brought down by a single bullet.

I think there is a cover-up on BH within the Pentagon.

I might have this story MSGOP story archived on my PC if anyone requests it. (It might take some time to find.)


Google: The below link is broken.
Conflict with Iraq: Two copter crashes mar mission for 101st ...
... who flew on his first combat mission Friday after ... significant because it was the first
deep assault ... helicopters and infantry-carrying Black Hawk helicopters of ...
www.naplesnews.com/03/03/naples/d926994a.htm

[Jack Rabbit]

33. The Story from the London Observer

This contains more information and analysis.

From the London Observer (Sunday supplement of the Guaradian Unlimited)
Dated Sunday October 26

US helicopter shot down in Iraq
By Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor

US army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down yesterday near Tikrit, the home of former president Saddam Hussein, using a readily available grenade launcher worth less than £40.
The incident comes at a time when attacks against American troops in Iraq are on the rise, averaging more than two dozen every day, and underscores the vulnerability of the American army, despite its technological sophistication and overwhelming power.
According to the US military, five soldiers were injured when the helicopter gunship crashed into a field and burst into flames. It was the second helicopter to be shot down since May . . . .
One of the architects of the war in Iraq, US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, had left Tikrit only hours earlier. Wolfowitz is making a three-day visit to the country as part of a public relations campaign by the White House to highlight improvements in Iraq that US authorities feel have been ignored by the international media.
Iraqis appear to disagree. A poll released this week showed that 67 per cent of Iraqis view the American-led coalition as 'occupying powers', more than 20 per cent higher than a survey conducted shortly after the fall of the former regime. According to the poll, conducted by Iraq's Centre for Research and Strategic Studies, the number of Iraqis who view the coalition as a 'liberating' force has dropped from 43 to 15 per cent, and very few feel safe in the presence of the police or foreign armies controlling the country.

Once again, Americans who want to know what they need to know to make informed decisions in a democracy should turn to the British press.