Video: Helicopter Almost Crashes On Ship, Lands Safely
This is without doubt one of the most dramatic videos of a helicopter captured from a ship. The pilot is about to take off from the helipad when suddenly something prevents the helicopter from moving forward and makes him turn back and land, nearly escaping a fatal crash which at some point looked inevitable.
The helicopter in the video is a Turbine Enstrom Helicopter on the helipad of a Greenpeace ship somewhere off the coast of Ireland. According to the description provided, one of the deck straps of the landing net attached to the helicopter was not correctly released during the time of take off. This prevented the helicopter from taking off, pulling it back with a jerk. The pilot’s skills and quick thinking saves the day as he lands the helicopter safety back on the helipad.
However, on taking a closer look, we didn’t find any obstruction from a deck strap or structure which prevented the helicopter from taking the flight. All that is seen in the video is that the helicopter suddenly took a sharp turn while taking off, narrowly escaped crashing and hitting a crew member, and landed back safely on the net. We still wonder what really caused the near-fatal accident.
Do you think it was the fault of the deck crew or the pilot? Let’s know in the comments after watching the video below:
About Author
Raunek Kantharia is a marine engineer turned maritime writer and entrepreneur. After a brief stint at the sea, he founded Marine Insight in 2010. Apart from managing Marine Insight, he also writes for a number of maritime magazines and websites.
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I am no aviation expert, but this looks like a failed tail rotor resulting in a spin out. The pilot did pull a rabbit out of a hat by managing to land the chopper in one piece. But i can’t stop wondering how lucky was that deck hand, there are like hundred scenarios where he could have turned into hundred pieces, his guardian angel was on duty that day I guess.
The whole operation looks poor. The helo is almost taking off the entire time due to ship movement/wind, the deck team are still out there! The pilot should have aborted any attempt to take off straight away and the Deck team should have been pulled back! Certainly it was a skilled landing following what looks like a unplanned take-off (I also see no sign of caught lashing,) and agreed the deck crew were extremely lucky! Just raises questions as to Risk assesment (or rather lack of it,) the backbone of all shipping nowadays. That being said the crews of the anti whaling Ships take silly risks. (I agree with their fight)
The wind from behind as well as the ship pitching back (stern of ship going down) caused the helicopter to start going up and pitching forward. Panic on the part of the pilot caused the helicopter to pitch backwards hitting the tail of the helicopter on the deck. With the tail rotor no longer functioning, the helicopter begins to spin. The pilot cut all power to allow the helicopter to fall back on to the deck. Saved by luck not skill.
First of all this is un planed take off and a mistake of the HLO to clear the Chooper while the HDAs still at helideck area.
Tail rotor fail! You can even see the moment it failed in the middle of the movie. The whole chopper hitched at that moment.