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Shocking Video: Passengers Survive Helicopter Crash in Arizona
- Posted on March 5, 2012 at 7:05am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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A shocking crash was caught on video in Arizona recently, when a retired military helicopter went down near Coolidge, AZ.
The chopper was filming a chase for the Korean version of the show “Top Gear” when its engines failed. Luckily, the aircraft’s tough exterior saved the crew — no one was hurt.
You can watch incredible video of the crash below:
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5150Dan
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:13pmThat was the Korean version of the show “Top Gear” Not the Korean war era helicopter as some of the comments thought
Report Post »5150Dan
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:03pmI can only say one thing God and his angles were with them during the crash. they got out of it ok from what I can see and no fire ball explosion.
Report Post »Nvrat
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:26pmYou are correct-the angles were with them but the angels were also.
Report Post »elihu
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 2:43amYeah, it crashed because it was flying at the wrong angle…
Report Post »marineminer
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 6:27pmSorry folks , that was NOT a Korean era helocopter .
Report Post »Carl McPherson
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 11:45pmI don’t think people said it was a Korean era helicopter. They said it was a retired military helicopter video taping a Korean tv show chase scene.
Report Post »schlepnier
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:47pmIts a sad day whenever we loose a piece of our oprerational aviation history no matter if it is from WWII korea or vietnam.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:28pmMaintain thy airspeed least the ground arise and smite thee.
Report Post »So says Silas; The Sagacious Sage from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Griffin92
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 3:30pmNose low, turning to the right attitude, looks like the pilots were totally unprepared for a low level, low speed, engine failure. To low to auto rotate but maybe flair it to slow up then skids level and hope to slide it on. Fortunately the main rotor and transmission were ripped out, away from the crew. They violated Rule # 1: Never run out of airspeed, altitude and ideas all at the same time!
Report Post »What a waste for a great aircraft that, 42 years ago in SE Asia, got me back home each time (800 + hours) after smoking the bad guys with a whole load of 2.75 FFAR’s. Great memories from a time when you were young and bullet proof!!!
roagie1
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 1:05amchuck did say in his book those three things ,, thanks for the memories an thanks for your service,, you may of worked charlie over where i was ,, northern I corp 101st Airborne..
Report Post »99oxymoron
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 12:05pmUm…, where is the tail rotor?
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 12:30pmIt was there.
Report Post »If it wasn’t the chopper would have spun violently before impact.
The Sergeant Major
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:02pmMost digital cameras are not the best for action shooting or high speed photography. The shutter speed is too slow to catch the tail rotor. The images are from video grab and most video cameras run at 29 frames per second. I don’t know the ratio from the tail rotor in comparison to the main rotor, but I think it’s faster.
Report Post »ImMadAsHell
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 4:30pmgood observation, ive been flying over 32 years
Report Post »99oxymoron
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 11:59amI understand the helicoptor would have been rotating oposite the engine touque if the tail rotor had come off, but even upon impact with the ground I couldn’t see any dirt flying from where the tail rotor might have impacted the ground. Not to mention you can’t see it in the wreckage. Just an observation, there is no way to tell from those couple of seconds of video what happened for sure. (not for me anyway, I’m not an expert) Great story to tell the guys at the bar though. Glad they made it.
Report Post »Sam Lowry
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 11:16amThe headline and comments in this thread are awful.
1. The helicopter is a Vietnam era AH-1, more popularly known as the Cobra. The Bell AH-1 Cobra (company designation: Model 209) is a two-bladed, single engine attack helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. The AH-1 is the predecessor to the Army’s modern AH-64, Apache twin engine attack helicopter.
2. The Cobra carries 2 pilots, a pilot and navigator/co-pilot. No passengers.
3. The only thing the AH-1 shares in common with the UH-1 “Huey” troop transport “slick” is the engine, rotor and transmission system.
4. The pilot was performing a low altitude chase, flying low and fast under 100 ft. There is a certain altitude range for helicopters (and fixed wing) called the “dead zone.” If the engine fails in this zone there is insufficient time for the formerly powered rotor to auto-rotate. The craft will plunge to ground.
“heavy weight” did not prevent autorotation. flying too low prevented autorotation. it is arguable that even a more experienced pilot could have autorotated out of this engine failure when flying this low. by the time the engine out and low rpm alarms sounded the craft was probably less than 50ft off the ground. not enough time for the rotors to automatically disengage and autorotate before the ground rushed up to say “hello”
5. There are only a handfull of retired AH-1s in civilian hands in the US. Mostly owned by stunt pilots/companies serving the motion picture industry in C
Report Post »FlatFoot
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 2:58pm…alifornia.
The ‘characters remaining’ function of this site’s comments section is whack. So I figured that I might do you the favor of finishing that last word for you since you did me the favor of typing out all that corrected info before I had to take the time to do it myself (former USMC wing maggot Cpl. Crew Chief-Rescue Swimmer UH-1N Gunship ‘Stingeree’ HMLA-267 … oorah!).
The so-called ‘journalism’ of these ‘blogs’ are almost always devoid of anything more than cursory research and a fleeting facts check when they actually do so. The commentors are an entirely different beast altogether.
Report Post »GroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 5:41pmAre you related to rich lowrey? b/c you make uninformed remarks like he does.
Here is a H/V profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height-velocity_diagram
“prevent autorotation” is for the layman, as only 1% of US pop are licensed pilots. You can feel the lose of power, I have done many a practice auto-rotation. Alarms are for the totally distracted. The collective must be immediately dropped, as the rotor RPM must be maintained. More weight means more collective is needed, and more drag is created. More weight also increases the chance of stall on the airfoil. The engine drives the transmission through a SPRAG CLUTCH, and will only function in one direction. There is no “time to disengage”.
Report Post »Here is a student w/ engine failure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNWjW6yORyg
Doubt he was much higher than 50ft.
Forward momentum is what makes auto-rotation possible. Drag is created for lift to occur. More weight requires more lift which in turn creates more drag.
Please retort, I stand to correct you.
HK
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 11:00pmThe student pilot is almost 1000ft agl in that video, no where near 50ft. I’ve done many autos.
Report Post »Sam Lowry
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 11:52amthanks for your service : )
Report Post »Sam Lowry
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 11:56amGroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
i am not a pilot. but, i have flown enough in helicopters to know that this pliot was in the dead zone and when he lost power he was in a very unfavorable position with a handful of seconds to correct the problem.
Report Post »ZaphodsPlanet
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 10:07amLove how CNN does some a great job reporting what happened. Hey, LOOK… COPTER CRASH…
“We‘re sorry there’s no blood in this one, and we’re sure you probably have no interest at all in what happened…ie…. why the copter went down (idiot pilot of mech failure)”
Report Post »-CNN,Looking out for the finest snuff
films money can buy.
CorePatriot
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 12:51pmSo True CNN delivering another hack job on a story.
Report Post »Cobalt_Thorium_G
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 10:00amNOTE TO SELF: When flying an aircraft and descending, remember to pull out of the descent ***BEFORE*** reaching the ground….
Report Post »joseph mitch nixon
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 11:02am41 years in aviation , and i say 40 years ago a crash just like that , the reason “ the boys came from fix wings and when got in trouble did what you do in the fix wing ”
Report Post »i know a few things about the cobra in the picture , looks like a mechanical failure in the rotor components and they lost control of the machine . sheet happened . happy they walk .
KILLACOMMIE4MOMMY
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:54amWas it for NORTH KOREA!!!!????
Well at least it was a chopper made when we used to make things here in the good ol’ U.S.A!
Report Post »Before union workers went out to smoke pot and drink beer on thier break time!
Wyratt
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:50amI think a better pilot could have saved it.
Report Post »Delta D-5-3
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:59amAnd I think with a better education, you wouldn’t have posted that………
Report Post »ianmc002
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:19amI’d have to check my shorts after that one.
What can brown do for you?
Report Post »Kafir-Islamsux
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:28amOk, you almost made me fill mine laughing at that one…
Report Post »Kafir-Islamsux
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:06amThis is an old Huey Cobra attack helicopter. It was designed to protect the pilots and survive hard landings like this. But still freakin’ lucky!!
Report Post »Slowman101
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:34amThey were lucky.
Report Post »GroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:32am“Heavy construction saved them” No mention of how that extra weight prevented auto rotation which could have resulted in a soft landing.
Where was this made again?!?! (rhetorical for those who can’t tell)
BOMUSTGO
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 9:13amIt looks like they were flying too low to do an auto rotation.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 7:49am.
Report Post »Must have been built by Non-Union workers…………..
cemerius
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 7:59amBuilt back in the day when “union” workers were running US Steel.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:08am.
Report Post »US Steel is a 5 mile mess ruined by unions…….
000degrees
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 7:34amWow ….lucky them, they get a new lease on life.
Report Post »22
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 7:30amUhhh, built back in the day when America was king. Imagine in 30-40 years doing a crash test with the Chevy Volt on Top Gear. Pity the fool who would be driving it. Thankfully the pilots are OK. great chopper too.
Report Post »martinez012577
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 8:51amBut the volt commercial says they are one of the safest cars ever built. They would never lie about things like that.
Report Post »22
Posted on March 5, 2012 at 12:47pmFunny how this chopper doesn’t catch fire with all of that “evil” high octane fuel, supplied by the “evil” oil companies, and Dumbo’s car will catch fire in your garage, just sitting there!!
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