AH-64 Apache Crash Afghanistan
- Thread starter Mosamania
- Start date
Lone Shooter
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 486
- Reaction score
- 1
- Country
- Location
it seems the heli landed on top of a guy at the first crash and than bounced off. I wonder if there were casualities.
untitled
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2008
- Messages
- 7,516
- Reaction score
- 3
- Country
- Location
Insane Apache Crash
A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache gunship crashed in Marzak, Afghanistan, in restive Paktika province along the border with Pakistan. The incident, captured in the video above, illustrates the dangers of aggressive, low-level flying in a part of Afghanistan where U.S. troops are almost entirely dependent on airplanes and helicopters for resupply and fire support.
U.S. troops deployed to Marzak in January at the invitation of local elders. The Americans’ goal: to train up a local police force capable of defending the isolated town from Taliban fighters. The crash occurred in February, our colleague Leo Shane from Stars and Stripes tells us.
The Apache is shown flying low over the main U.S. outpost at a former boys’ school. The helicopter dips too low, bounces off the outpost’s snow-covered landing zone and spins wildly, narrowly missing several people before slamming into the ground near the Americans’ secondary outpost at a neighboring girls’ school.
No one was killed, according to the video description, but the copter crew supposedly could face criminal charges. The girls’ school is just a stone’s throw from “downtown” Marzak. It appears that if the Apache had bounced a few more times, it could have struck several homes and potentially hurt or killed a bunch of people.
There’s a lot of low-level flying over Marzak. All soldiers come and go by helicopter. Supplies are sling-loaded by copters or airdropped from 150 feet. Air Force F-15Es often orbit overhead when the outpost’s soldiers go on patrol. The Apache gunships are regular visitors as they scan the surrounding mountains for Taliban infiltrators. During my visit in January, the Apache crews made a habit of buzzing low over the boys’ school as a demonstration of American power … and as a morale boost for the isolated troops.
But that low-flying prowess is risky, as the fortunately bloodless crash proves.
A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache gunship crashed in Marzak, Afghanistan, in restive Paktika province along the border with Pakistan. The incident, captured in the video above, illustrates the dangers of aggressive, low-level flying in a part of Afghanistan where U.S. troops are almost entirely dependent on airplanes and helicopters for resupply and fire support.
U.S. troops deployed to Marzak in January at the invitation of local elders. The Americans’ goal: to train up a local police force capable of defending the isolated town from Taliban fighters. The crash occurred in February, our colleague Leo Shane from Stars and Stripes tells us.
The Apache is shown flying low over the main U.S. outpost at a former boys’ school. The helicopter dips too low, bounces off the outpost’s snow-covered landing zone and spins wildly, narrowly missing several people before slamming into the ground near the Americans’ secondary outpost at a neighboring girls’ school.
No one was killed, according to the video description, but the copter crew supposedly could face criminal charges. The girls’ school is just a stone’s throw from “downtown” Marzak. It appears that if the Apache had bounced a few more times, it could have struck several homes and potentially hurt or killed a bunch of people.
There’s a lot of low-level flying over Marzak. All soldiers come and go by helicopter. Supplies are sling-loaded by copters or airdropped from 150 feet. Air Force F-15Es often orbit overhead when the outpost’s soldiers go on patrol. The Apache gunships are regular visitors as they scan the surrounding mountains for Taliban infiltrators. During my visit in January, the Apache crews made a habit of buzzing low over the boys’ school as a demonstration of American power … and as a morale boost for the isolated troops.
But that low-flying prowess is risky, as the fortunately bloodless crash proves.
Similar threads
