Lost and found ... US helicopters after they were forced to make an emergency landing amid heavy fog in Poland. Source: AFP
Lost American Military Choppers Drop In On Rural Poland Fields To Ask For Directions -- New York Daily News
The Black Hawks and Chinooks landed in Gruta and Nowa Wies in northern Poland as they returned from military exercises in Lithuania. Shocked locals were at first concerned, until they realized it was lost Americans and rushed over to take photos with the crews.
A total of 12 American military helicopters, thrown off course by foggy weather, dropped down onto farmers’ fields in rural northern Poland to ask locals for directions.
The appearance of five Black Hawk helicopters and a twin-rotored Chinook helicopter in a Gruta rapeseed field shocked locals, who, after overcoming concern, rushed to the aircraft to snap pictures with the American pilots.
“The Americans came over and asked where they landed,” resident Waldemar Krukowski told TVN24 television. “They wanted to know the name of the village.”
Read more ....
More News On The Surprising Landing Of 12 U.S. Black Hawks and Chinooks In A Polish Field
U.S. Army Choppers Forced to Land in Polish Fields -- Bloomberg
The Army made a surprise helicopter landing in Poland, hung out with villagers -- Washington Post
Polish villagers get surprise visit from U.S. helos -- Army Times
U.S. Army copters surprise Polish village -- CNN
8 comments:
GPS?
2 words. Budget cuts.
I don't understand.
What American chopper pilot has not flown at night extensively on deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan?
You are always getting new pilots, but between GPS, training, veteran pilots this should not have happened.
Somebodies ass is going to pay for this.
One or two years ago I read an interesting article about how new challanges the US Armed Forces have to face, and one highlighted the (missing) knowledge of how to operate without modern systems and equipments, because there could be situationa in the battlefields when they are not available for use. Maybe this is just a part of this new training system, or maybe (more likely) not.
mlacix,
You'd be surprised how easy it is to screw up with technology. You still get the artillery battery that's 180 out (pointing the opposite way it should), and sending rounds down range into someone's farmhouse.
At Fort McCoy, a reserve and national guard training base, they managed to hit one or 2 civilian homes during artillery training a while back. (I can't find the news article.)
I believe they were summer homes, so you could say no harm no foul.
The civilians were quite perturbed.
Now due to James comment I am perturbed. I know people will always screw up, but that 180 degree comments hit a nerve.
And some people always hate the military having large training areas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McCoy,_Wisconsin
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/fort-mccoy.htm
My father was the head of an Russian artillery unit at the beginning of the Second World War (he was studying math in university when the war broke out ... hence off to the artillery unit).
The horror stories that he told me on how many times misdirected fire occurred .... it is amazing that he survived.
Post a Comment