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Old February 24th 09, 06:50 PM posted to rec.aviation.rotorcraft
JohnO
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Posts: 120
Default How difficult is it to shoot down a helicopter?

On Feb 25, 1:02*am, Asteras wrote:
On 24 Φεβ, 01:42, JohnO wrote:

They shouldn't have fired at the helicopter in the first place as that
recklessly endangered the hijacked pilot. You don't go and kill
innocent civillians to prevent a jail break. Stupid cops!


I think that there were only "warning shots". That explains why the
helicopter suffered no damage (and that is why the prisoners landed in
a remote area, safely).


According to news reports there's at least one bullet hole in the
helicopter. So the cops are useless at shooting at best.


I think the tail rotor shot would be down to chance as it's a smallish
moving target and it could still easily lead to a fatal accident.


Thank you for your technical feedback.

Unfortunately, according to your viewpoint, the stupid/corrupt greek
cops have many excuses for not doing anything to prevent the jail
break. Their advocates will probably use such arguments in the court.


Sometimes you just can't do anything direct. That's the nature of what
was effectively a hostage situation.


The stupidest thing of all is that the pilot is now arrested: He will
be tried for collusion, because he did not use a device to warn the
police that his helicopter was hijacked.


Yet more stupidity then. Hopefully the pilot can mount a complete
defense against what sounds like a vindictive and ridiculous charge.
The authorities are claiming that he should have set the emergency
squawk code on his transponder to indicate a hijack but the hijackers
could well know about that and warn him not to.