Posted on 08/12/2020 12:44:57 PM PDT by SJackson
A US Air Force helicopter was shot at near Manassas, Virginia, on Monday, injuring one of two pilots on board, according to an Air Force official.
The UH-1N was flying 10 miles northwest of Manassas on a routine training mission at an altitude of 1,000 feet when the incident occurred. It landed safely at Manassas Regional Airport west of Washington, DC, and the pilot was taken to hospital where they were treated and released, the official said.
The incident is now under FBI and Air Force investigation to determine if the helicopter was deliberately shot at or if someone was randomly shooting into the air. The aircraft will be closely inspected for other damage, the official added.
The airport operations officer Richard Allabaugh reported its air traffic control tower was notified of an "an onboard emergency on a military helicopter that was inbound."
The pilots of the US Air Force helicopter, which identified itself as Mussel 16, can be heard reporting "a medical emergency" in air traffic control audio. The aircraft initially scrapped plans to land at Manassas Regional Airport then informed controllers it would be heading "direct to Manassas."
Paramedics were called to the airport.
The US Air Force 316th wing only confirmed an incident occurred and that the helicopter made an emergency landing on Monday.
"A UH-1N Huey helicopter assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron at Joint Base Andrews conducted an emergency landing at 12:43 pm on August 10th in Manassas, Va during a routine training mission," the statement read.
"The Office of Special Investigations is fully engaged with our FBI colleagues on this incident. OSI take threats to our Airmen and our resources very seriously. As this is an ongoing investigation, no further investigative details can be released at this time," it added.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Golden BB.
Lucky it didn’t take out the Jesus nut!
Remember the dude that shot down the Sheriff’s helicopter years ago? The charges were dropped, but in 2013 he got into a standoff with APD. A real winner.
I wouldn’t say just hitting an target as large as an military helicopter isn’t hard. I’m a an old farm boy who hunts occasional(more occasionally as I age)(Deer, quail, dove, groundhog and occasional nuisance dog, coyote etc.)that lives near Fort Campbell and we see them flying every day. A thousand feet is very doable.
Now, that’s just hitting it.
Hitting it with the idea to bring it down is another subject and even my basic skill (as a civilian) shooter wouldn’t dare to offer advice on how to bring one of these ‘birds’ down.
These pilots fly pretty low so you can see their faces and they can see yours so you keep you weapon at a respectful position when you hear them approach.
Nowadays with their optics i daresay they can see you at a far distance and in all conditions so getting a wild hair up your a$$ and try shooting at one of these aircraft ain’t the smartest idea one can come up with.
See post 33
Every year I find several bullets in my swimming pool and on the surrounding patio. This year, 9mm and what appears to be a 38. They never hit anything to mushroom or expand, but they have rifling lines on the sides. It is Memphis.
At my former place of employment in a bad area of Detroit, they had a coffee can of casings collected from the roof during maintenance.
Ok, one of the three.
Yeah. I do remember. Vaguely. I think it was soon after I moved here in 2005.
Yep 2005
Unlike boys throwing rocks at a passing train that can't stop, aircraft can circle and return fire.
There's a dangerous time in every boy's development when he tests what he can do to the world, not sure yet if he has any effect, sometimes shooting things, playing with explosives, vandalizing. Hopefully he makes it through the eventual "oh shit" moment without hurting himself or others, but sometimes not.
Yesterday something strange happened in our little West Virginia town where nothing ever happens (and that’s why we moved here). What looked like a Marine Corps Osprey was circling the town while some unmarked, completely black helicopter (a lot like a Hughes MD500-4 with the weird “tail fin”) was hovering very low in the sky over a couple houses. Then it moved a few blocks South and did the same thing. We’re an hour from I-77 so it would take a fleeing fugitive a while to get here. I would think the State police not the military would be looking for a fugitive. If they were looking for cannabis plants, in town would be an unlikely location. People came out of businesses and stopped to watch. It was rather annoying and I was wondering if I would hear gunfire.
If it was a UH-1H model 120 knots top speed 130-140 mph, not easy, not impossible.
“The chances of hitting a moving helicopter at 1K ft. even with a semiautomatic rifle must be very, very small...just as possible that this was a random shot...” [PUGACHEV, post 8]
“Wishful thinking. A military helicopter, domestic terrorists everywhere” [albie, post 14]
“1000 ft is just 334 yards. A car is easy to hit at that range and a chopper is way bigger than a car. Even at full speed you just have to lead a few feet in front of it.” [This_Dude, post 17]
“Thought that pilot and cabin ground facing portion area was armor protected to prevent any smaller calibers like 30’s bullets penetrating that area. If not they should be. Report didn’t disclose bullet size.” [mosesdapoet, post 27]
“I wouldn’t say just hitting an target as large as an military helicopter isn’t hard...A thousand feet is very doable...Hitting it with the idea to bring it down is another subject...” [RedMonqey, post 43]
The helo was at an altitude of 1000 ft, according to the news story. Probably means 1000 feet above mean sea level. No information on the slant range because no one knows where the shooter was: left? right? in front? behind? We don’t yet know.
https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104464/uh-1n-iroquois/
UH-1Ns don’t fly very fast: a little over 100 mph at cruise. They’re still faster than the average automobile. Judging the velocity vector of an object in flight is very different from judging speed and direction of a ground vehicle, even at comparable ranges to target.
Target detection, identification, tracking, point-of-impact prediction, and gunlaying are complex tasks: quite a ways beyond “leading a few feet.” Purely manual training of antiaircraft guns was on the way out by the latter part of World War Two. Today, the military establishment doesn’t bother to train even its top shooters at that task: it’s tricky enough with a mounted machine gun, to say nothing of a hand-held rifle firing one bullet at a time. Fire-control computers and guided missiles have pretty much taken over the anti-aircraft mission.
UH-1N isn’t expected to encounter hostile fire so it probably lacks armor. The weight and performance penalties are so severe that nobody puts armor on any aircraft unless it’s really, really needed. Applies five times over for rotary-wing aircraft.
Pot growers.
Particularly those that use their own product.
This is a hostile act of war from some hate America group.
+100!! Exactly and it needs to be met with force!!
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