Posted on 09/24/2010 1:43:30 PM PDT by South40
Two Navy helicopters from North Island Naval Air Station were damaged, and their pilots are now grounded, after some bizarre flying over Lake Tahoe last week.
A Navy spokesman confirmed Thursday that a video posted on YouTube is genuine footage of two MH-60 Romeo helicopters from North Island’s Helicopter Maritime Strike 41 squadron.
The video shows the $33 million helicopters flying low over the lake. One seems to lose control, spinning and crashing into the water. The pilot then regains control and pulls the craft back into the air.
The Navy wouldn’t identify the pilots or say whether the helicopters were supposed to be hovering over Lake Tahoe, only saying that the entire Sept. 13 flight is under investigation.
The pilots are not flying until the Navy wraps up an aviation mishap board investigation, said Lt. Aaron Kakiel, spokesman for the Naval Air Forces command at North Island.
Lake Tahoe is not a normal training area for Navy pilots, he said.
The pilots could face administrative action — and even lose their flying qualifications — depending on the outcome of the investigation.
Though the YouTube video only catches one crashing, both helicopters hit the water because they didn’t have sufficient power to hold their hovering positions, Kakiel said.
The damage suffered by the two aircraft is estimated at between $50,000 and $500,000. They had to land at Lake Tahoe Airport to be repaired.
Watching the video made retired Navy jet pilot Steve Diamond think the helicopter crew may have had a legitimate reason to be hovering over Lake Tahoe.
Somebody out hotdogging probably wouldn’t do it in view of another aircrew, or over a popular tourist destination, said Diamond, who retired in 2002.
“Somebody has to be a total moron to do it in total view of tourists and in a recreational area, when everyone has a camera these days. We don’t really have morons flying naval aircraft,” he said.
“It’s possible they were troubleshooting a problem; you don’t know,” Diamond said. “It’s easy to make a snap judgment, but there are other possibilities.”
A different set of pilots flew the aircraft home, Kakiel said. HSM-41, which trains new pilots, dispatched another crew on a commercial flight to fly the helicopters back Sept. 16.
The MH-60 Romeo is the Navy’s newest helicopter and is considered state of the art. Its usual missions take it over the open ocean for anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare.
The MH-60s were flying home from Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento where they had taken part in an air show. Needing to refuel, the pilots were headed to Lemoore Naval Air Station when the incident happened.
A typical crew for the MH-60 Romeo is a pilot, co-pilot and crewman.
LOL! They will never fly anything again. Jackasses.
SnakeDoc
There are North Korean mini-subs in Lake Tahoe
That about sums it up.
"so howz your career going after winning that bet?"
Well, if we had a bunch of milquetoast pilots, we wouldn’t have a very effective military.
Comes with the territory.
Grampa Pettibone’s going to flip over this.
Really? Things must have changed after I left in 1993.
Circumstances relating to what was perceived by the pilot as an equipment malfunction required a brief test of operational limits of the craft and crew. The skinny-dipping, of course, was implemented as a morale booster. Report closed.
Video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYExH8hpgXI
New “scubacopters”
Passing to a rotorhead friend of mine. Maybe I’ll get useful input.
Odd. Almost like a “who’s got the bigger water spray” contest.
Looks to me like the dwondraft kicked up enough mist to interfere with engine air intakes - thereby reducing lift balance power.
Nice recovery!
These guys are tasked with flying right to the edge right now in Stan....Letting off some steam and having some balls to the wall fun has to be allowed more. Sucks that some Civ caught all this on tape, on them.
As a former Naval Aviator.
Boys will be boys -— but assume you’re always being filmed or be prepared to lose your career
I have done dumber
Thanks, I’ll be interested to hear what your friend has to say.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.