Better lay off the vodka

[Brian Jackson]

http://cbs13.com/video/?id=7649@kovr.dayport.com
Ouch!

[Brent Drake]

Maybe should have tried to go straight up instead of forward.

[Hognose]

What he should have done was back off the collective once the nose started to tuck. I've never seen dynamic rollover forward before!

The news stories were not in agreement as to whether the pilot lived or not. He broke his back, apparently in the initial splashdown, which might explain some of the weirdness attempting takeoff. That story says he died but ITAR-TASS said he was evacuated by an Mi-8 to a hospital on land.

The helicopter was still floating belly up twelve hours later.

cheers

-=K=-

[Brian Jackson]

I agree with Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien, even though I'm not yet a pilot. It would stand to reason that once the nose of the heli was submerged, the water displacement alone would put more force forward of the rotor shaft than the aft section when collective pitch was applied, therefor rolling it over as if the water was a hinge/anchor. It was only following a natural arc based on the forces applied. Unfortunately the pilot didn't realize this in time, and somebody died.

I'd like to make a formal apology to everyone on this forum for the subject title. I saw this clip on one of those wacky clip sites and didn't stop to consider these are people's sons, husbands and significant others. Won't do that again. Russian, American or any other, here we're aviators and it's sad for any loss of life. My "vodka" stereotype was in poor taste and I'm truly sorry. No disrespect was intended.

Nobody's yelled at me yet, but I wanted to make that clear beforehand.

Thanks,
Brian J

[JByrd]

From the instability in hover and the large upward bend in the rotor blades (insufficient rotor rpm) before settling into the water it seems to me the helo may have had engine problems as the primary source of trouble before the other events got out of hand.

Very sad to see.

Jim B.

[brett s]

Looks like one engine quit & they were too heavy to hover, that was the first impact - then he tried to get it back in the air by water taxiing fast enough to get through ETL & ended up in a dynamic rollover when the nose plowed too deep.

[Hognose]

Jim and Brett -- FWIW the Russians said they did the maneuver deliberately, and they do it routinely; they call it the "splashdown."

Who knows? the US used to have a/c that had a limited ability to land in water, but I've never heard of one being put down like that Mi-14.

The helicopter was a SAR variant of the Mi-14, whose NATO reporting name is... nuts... HAZE?

Here's Pravda in English with photos of the mishap credited to Japanese NTV. They say the pilot did expire on the way to the hospital (which explains the earlier, confusing crossed messages). Early reports often give up in accuracy what they gain in speed.

http://english.pravda.ru/photo/report/crash-431

Rest in peace, brother Ivan. Your brothers of the sky salute you.

cheers

-=K=-

[brett s]

That was a pretty firm landing to be intentional, bet you'd find a few creases where the tailboom mounts if nothing else! I know they practice those running takeoffs from the water routinely, hard to believe they'd stick the nose over that far on purpose.