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LiveLeak video: Chinook pilot flies chopper home despite taking round in the head.


sdistc

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I was linked to this video via Facebook, and thought it was worth sharing.

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=982_1287162255

 

Irrespective of your views on the conflict in the Middle East & Afghanistan, I firmly believe that we should always support those young blokes on the frontline - especially when you see stuff like this. Makes me very proud to see the professionalism and training under extreme duress.

 

Edit: Should have pointed out that the pilot is British!

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Great vid. When I was out there a Chinook took a round in the cockpit, 6" above the pilots head. If you know your Chinooks it took the rotor brake out. And one of ours took an RPG through the side.

These guys put their lives on the line daily.

 

Yeah, I was thinking of you and DB when I watched this, Craig. I wish there was more coverage of these types of things on our news here - brings the reality of war (i.e. the consequences of the political decisions from those we've voted to elect) our disengaged "commuter" mentality.

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Trailers of discovery ATM with the guy from wheeler dealers who was there when it happened it looks like. Shot in the head and still flew home I think

 

Mike brewer. The chinook was bit of a mess, lost part of it's avionic s which made it a pig to fly. I think, what was more interesting that it got hit on a medical extraction with the MERT team in the back and the pilot was more concerned about getting the medivac back to the hospital that fact he had been shit in the helmet.

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Incredible story. Saw this on the news a few weeks ago.

 

What those chaps go through is pretty darn impressive if you ask me. I hope the anti-war brigade stay out of this thread for once.

 

That was my point, Gaz - while I personally believe that war is largely pointless, I value & respect the job that our armed forces do irrespective of the political machinations that place them in the line of fire.

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Yeah, I was thinking of you and DB when I watched this, Craig. I wish there was more coverage of these types of things on our news here - brings the reality of war (i.e. the consequences of the political decisions from those we've voted to elect) our disengaged "commuter" mentality.

 

I watched this on the news the other day. The guy was really brave and was so calm.

 

Crazy stuff.

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From what my mates back at Odiham said it was only his NVG mount on his helmet that stopped it coming through. Had it hit the actual helmet it may well have gone through. There are 2 pilots on board that aircraft in those situations in case you lose one. The whole lower end of the aircraft is now armoured with inch thick kevlar plating but there is nothing you can do about the front of the aircraft as its difficult to see through kevlar plate. Not alot you can do about RPG's either which is why we've lost 2 chinooks to them and another had an RPG go straight in one side of the aft pylon directly in front of the AVS and out the other side without detonating. Had it detonated we'd be 3 chinooks down now. If you consider that it takes 3 years to build the replacements if we can afford them we don't want to keep losing them.

 

As for the guys coolness in the face of extreme conditions you will find pretty much all of those guys are like that. Its their bread and butter and they have been doing sh*t like this for 15-20 years. These guys have been getting shot at since 1990 in Northern Ireland, through the entire Balkan conflicts, two sets of gulf wars, and now Afghanistan. They are quite unfortunately very used to it.

Reminds me of the pilot that took a birdstrike to the face that left him utterly blinded, he flew the aircraft in by being talked down by air traffic control.

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That is truely remarkable, can't believe how calm he remained & still managed to land the Chinook very well dispite the issue with the hydrulics being busted, no easy task I am sure. They take massive risk flying them Chinooks, no matter how much armour you have it only takes someone with a bit of luck & aim to caught the unless stronger parts of the plane to bring it down.

 

Totally agree with you Andrew on the War front :thumbs:

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Amazing stuff. These guys seriously don't get paid enough. Makes me sick when I see whiney complaining numpties in cushy numbers doing F'all in the grand scheme of things paying themselves a fat wage with all the associated perks. When these fellas wake up every morning wondering whether this day will be their last. Heroes.......all of them.

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The whole lower end of the aircraft is now armoured with inch thick kevlar plating but there is nothing you can do about the front of the aircraft as its difficult to see through kevlar plate. Not alot you can do about RPG's either .

 

As are ours. We took an RPG right through the cabin just below window height, how it didnt hit anyone/anything is just miraculous.

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