RAF Chinook down in Afghanistan.

Steyr

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8211552.stm

Page last updated at 10:35 GMT, Thursday, 20 August 2009 11:35 UK
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Crew unhurt in Chinook emergency

The British crew escaped injury after a Chinook helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence says.

The crew managed to safely evacuate the helicopter after an engine fire forced the landing in Helmand on Wednesday.

The MoD said it was not ruling out enemy fire as a possible cause for the emergency landing.

The aircraft was deliberately destroyed by a coalition airstrike to keep it out of enemy hands.

The four-strong crew were picked up by another Chinook immediately after the incident, north of Sangin.

They are believed to have been on a general security flight unrelated to Thursday's election.

The Ministry of Defence said that in the short term other UK aircraft in the region, and those operated by Nato partners, would be able to cover the "helicopter lift requirement".

"In the medium term, the UK's joint helicopter command is already planning the replacement of this airframe," it said.




Glad nobody was hurt.

McArmalite

Has there many other choppers brought down before ? For the Yanks and the the rest of them ?
Those of you with the military know how ( I don't include an ex FCA man like myself in that , learning to fire the FN and anti tank gun was about as far as I went ), what kind of anti aircraft weapons would the Taliban have ?

djtechnics1210

Id presume the taliban would have rpgs. probably left over from their encounters with the russians

McArmalite

djtechnics1210 wrote: »

Id presume the taliban would have rpgs. probably left over from their encounters with the russians

If an RPG hit it and obviously exploded, sure their would be no survivors ?

OS119

its pretty well known that the Taleban has no designed AA capability, what it has used so far is surface to surface weapons in an Surface to Air role -and with limited success given the number of AC they've tried it on and the ability they have in denying airspace to NATO.

apart from that i think the conversation to end there. while this site owes no loyalty, legal or moral to UK forces, UK forces aren't the only units that could be targetted by those seeking to use knowledge in how to bring down helicopters with surface to surface weapons...

djtechnics1210

McArmalite wrote: »

If an RPG hit it and obviously exploded, sure their would be no survivors ?

Armor piercing rounds from ak or gimpy maybe

McArmalite

OS119 wrote: »

its pretty well known that the Taleban has no designed AA capability, what it has used so far is surface to surface weapons in an Surface to Air role -and with limited success given the number of AC they've tried it on and the ability they have in denying airspace to NATO.

apart from that i think the conversation to end there. while this site owes no loyalty, legal or moral to UK forces, UK forces aren't the only units that could be targetted by those seeking to use knowledge in how to bring down helicopters with surface to surface weapons...

I think the last place on earth those interested in bringing down a chopper would be looking for information would be boards.ie

McArmalite

Going a bit off topic but anyway, apart from AK47's, RPG's and largely home made explosives, is that about the height of their weaponry ? I mean I thought they were supposed to be supported by various states ( Iran ? ), and wealthy Muslim fanatics in Saudi etc and so would have the capablitiy of buying some more serious hardware such as surface to air misiles, anti aircraft guns etc

OS119

McArmalite wrote: »

Going a bit off topic but anyway, apart from AK47's, RPG's and largely home made explosives, is that about the height of their weaponry ? I mean I thought they were supposed to be supported by various states ( Iran ? ), and wealthy Muslim fanatics in Saudi etc and so would have the capablitiy of buying some more serious hardware such as surface to air misiles, anti aircraft guns etc

its not the cost per se, its the logistical problems, the treat of detection and the 'we could have half a dozen SAM launchers with two missiles each, or 1000 AK-47's,a billion rounds of 7.62 and 100 RPG's' equation.

and you'd be surprised about where people go looking for information - there are precious few 'how to shoot down a helicopter with non S2A weapons' manuals floating around - so 'interested parties' trawl the internet looking for pieces they can add to a jigsaw...

Hagar

I hope the Taliban never hear about Google or Wikipedia. :eek:

But point taken let's not be the source they find.