Stunning videos of US Army Black Hawk making an emergency landing in a traffic circle last week in Bucharest
It’s not clear why a US Army Black Hawk helicopter made an emergency landing in traffic last week, the helicopter doesn’t look like it’s in autorotation and it sounds as if at least one engine is running. What is clear is that the aviator at the controls made an incredible emergency landing. With supreme airmanship, the pilot, whose aircraft was going down in downtown Bucharest, Romania in broad daylight, was able to pilot the chopper into a traffic circle. Nobody was injured and it looks like the aircraft itself is undamaged. The only damage on the ground were two lamp poles knocked down, apparently by rotor wash.
Here’s some video edited together from multiple angles. The rest of the video has some amazing shots of other aircraft that any aviation enthusiast will also enjoy.
Before dropping into a roundabout, the helicopter and crew were taking part in preparations for a military parade in the NATO-member country.
Black Hawk Down II? (Those Romanians can be testy… )
Good Job Pilot. Now, who’s gonna have a little chat with the maintenance crew?
We had to make an emergency landing in Korea in a schoolyard. The Korean National Police showed up and to give us a “parking ticket”. Luckily Mr.Uwe the schools English teacher showed up and cooler heads prevailed.
My first helicopter ride ever was in 1985 in Korea. We flew low over farms . All along our route cows and pigs were breaking out of their pens. I hate to think how much damage that flight caused.
Correct me if I am mistaken KoB, but don’t Army Aircraft carry their primary maintainer on board (i.e. Crew Chief/Door Gunner)? Unlike Air Force who say, “Looks good to me Sir, try not to scratch it while you are having fun…”
I seem to recall a ride on a CH-47 going in to Liberia, with the Crew Chief constantly tapping on the hydraulic lines and talking to someone up front. He would tell us “nothing to worry about, these babies have multiple redundant systems, they almost never go down…” “these babies float you know! We launch zodiacs that way”….and we are all qualified Airborne troopers (most with Ch-47 experience, some with water jumps) and asking him “If we think we are going to have to ditch, can you give us a warning and we will all bail out the back to make it lighter?!!”
Had a ride on a CH-47 from Tirana, Albania to Vicenza after a partnership for peace exercise. Managed to talk the Crew Chief out of a set of monkey straps and sat on the ramp most of the flight. Just about the time we can see Italy, he cocks his head and is listening intently to whoever in his ear. He stands up, opens a small access hatch and puts his hand inside. And just stands there. I notice his right sleeve is slowly being soaked with hydraulic fluid. He sees me looking, gives me a grin, and puts his finger to his lips like shhhhh.
PS: Do you know how many topless women are on the beaches in Italy? I didn’t either.
Yeah, spent some time in Vicenza, there is a “non-family” beach just west of Jeslo! Lots of Germans go there.
In ancient times (the 80s) all the 47s I came across carried a Flight Engineer and Crew Chief. On MEDEVAC (UH-60s/UH-1Vs) we always had a Crew Chief as part of our four man crew. I can’t speak for the assault companies.
In my youth I was doing a jump out of a Navy Sea Stallion (kinda cool for an Army guy).
The crew had never dropped what the crew chief called ‘paradroppers’.
Anyway, on the way to the DZ the guy across from me pointed excitedly at my head- I wiped my hand on my helmet and came away with what I think they call
Cherry Juice- hydraulic fluid. It was dripping all over me in a steady flow.
I grabbed the crew chief and voiced my concern. I’ll never forget his response:
‘Sir, this thing is so old I don’t care about leaks- I worry when it STOPS leaking’
True story. They also tried to drop
the HALO guys at 800 feet and the static line guys at 12,000 feet, but we’ll cover that in another thread.
Yeah, thing I learned with my first Jump Master duties on a CH-47…make sure you ask the crew how many drops they have done, and be very clear they understand how to call the jump (when they turn on the green light and off). I was watching the green lights (not standing on the ramp but the seem) and as I let my last jumper go I observed the end of the drop zone over the ramp (there was no wind that day)… he had a long walk back to the DZ. I apologized but he did not blame me. After that I position middle of the ramp so I can sight through the gap the DZ.
My time in Army Aviation and my 5 years in the 160th, I was always told with Chinooks to start worrying when you don’t see the hydraulic fluid dripping somewhere.
Pilot had to take a massive pizz?
That pilot is almost Coast Guard material! /sarc
I thought the helo pilot was going to give some of those trees a buzz cut (with subsequent rotor blade damage) during his initial approach.
There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. Time for that pilot to go buy hisself a lottery ticket.
If God wanted man to fly…
All I’m saying is the number of cars having mid-flight emergencies leading to a 35,000 foot descent is statically zero.
Not quite zero;
Ya’ll do know that the soldier (was a Sergeant) who cut the straps on those three Hummers was busted to Buck Private and given a BCD, don’t ya?
Cue the Kitty Forman clip./s
Yeah, that shithead should be making small rocks out of bigger ones for eternity.
Good.
A classic.
Its a Airborne thing.
A personal favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIF9ys-hJn0
is the SECOND filming of the ad… the first time around something went wrong with the car’s parachute and the car proved the 32ft/sec/sec rule.
https://media.hagerty.com/media/wp-content/uploads/uscamediasite/images/story-images/2018/12/04/mgb-ad(116)20181204134356
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50cpPAVoxJQ
The good old days before Clinton nuked the ARMY.
Ran the red light.
*grin*
I got to do something similar in my SH-2F. Loss of hydraulics over the James River, wound up doing a running landing down a civilian residential street and shut down in the cul-de-sac at the end.
The locals were a bit surprised.
Glad no one was injured here.
Those F-16’s were carrying live missiles. Also, they may be able to burn 64,000 lbs of fuel an hour but they only carry 11,300 lbs with external wing tanks.
All I’ll say is the pilot did a damned fine job of landing in an emergency and should be commended. Maintenance, however, maybe a different story.
Sometimes, even with all the PMCS in the world, and top-notch maintenance, shit will still break.
All parts are built by the lowest bidder.
And helos are several million small parts, all trying to get just as far from each other as they can.
In the Romanian cars, one man got fast and ran toward the Blackhawk. Probably he had seen a thing or two in his life.