Why do you suppose they didn’t destroy the tail section? It looked pretty much intact to me.
And I agree. It looks like the pilot landed on the wall.
I’m thinking that the tail was on the outside of the wall, and the SEALS were on the inside.
Interesting on the hardpacked dirt with different thermal properties. Another thread said they had a full-scale mock-up to train on, and one of the other posters felt that with all of that training under the “exact” conditions they would know about the wind effects, etc.
I guess next time they will try to mimic the soil conditions as well if this report is true.
I still wonder if it wasn’t shot down by an AK47 or an RPG. But that would be bad press when it comes time to sell these things or renew our budget for more of these fancy stealth helicopters.
Regardless, amazing how the pilot got it down okay and they completed the mission.