Originally Posted by Greenwood_Ranches

I notice that this is a pretty old post but i just happened to stumble uppon it and couldn't resist putting a word in.

I joined HMLA 169 a few months after the fatal UH-1N crash in March 03. I'm pretty sure this is not that crash. Stranger things have happened, but I've seen worse crashes than this and the crew survived. In fact, I would call this a "hard landing" more than a crash. These things tend to be unrecognizable if they really crash... I think in a few of the pictures, they guys lying and sleeping on the gear next to aircraft are probably the crew. Would you sleep on a dead comrade's gear?

The names on the side of the aircraft usually mean very little. Also, Each squadron has there own unique way of painting things and HLMA 169 birds usually have a maltese cross on them (the units logo) This one looks like it has some kind of logo on the panel above the sliding cabin door. I don't recognize it so its most likely an "east coast" squadron if I had to guess.

So I'll tell you what I do know:





I would say that they are probably the pilots and yes, they look to be disconnecting the battery. That bottom part of the nose also opens to remove the battery, you can't see it in the picture so you can't see the cable and disconnect...





I worked on these things for 5 years, they're not quite as tough as a heavy helicopter would be.

Main rotor took out the tail boom. (The tail boom is light weight, two men can lift it without the gear boxes.) The bird came in hard, belly first with little forward air speed, broke the skids (you can even see a deep impact from the skid in one image) The force of the impact caused the rotor to drop low enough to take out the tail boom.

The stinger is in tact, thats just how small it is. Doesn't look like it hit anything to me.



The aircraft bounced and turned a little, leaving both skids where they broke, thus both skids being on one side. Luckily for the crew, they didn't roll it.

Force of the blow from the main rotor threw the tail boom in front and right of the initial crash sight. (blades go ctr clkwise)



These things went off all of the time, almost randomly it seemed. Hell, I almost got taken out by one when a huey was coming in to land. The system seemed to go off any time it saw a flash, wether it was really a rocket firing or just the glint off of a car window or tin roof...

If I had to put a guess about what actually caused the crash, I would say it was an engine failure or collective problem of some kind. The crew looks to calm to have taken fire and gone down. If you had just been shot down in hostile territory, would take your gun off of its mount and take a nap?

I think they had control of the tail rotor when it came it because the aircraft only yawed after impact, and it did so in the opposite direction it would have went if it had lost tail rotor control. Plus, you've only got a 15% chance of SURVIVAL if you loose the tail rotor, let alone a nice pretty landing like this...