Navy helicopter lands in river, three injured

By THE NATION

 

 

A Navy helicopter transporting personnel from the Princess Mother’s Medical Volunteer Foundation mistakenly landed in the Uttaradit’s Nan River on Thursday evening.

 

The helicopter had taken off from Kanchanaburi and was heading to Uttaradit.

 

There were 10 people onboard, including two pilots, two mechanics and six medical personnel from the foundation.

 

Both pilots and one foundation staff member sustained injuries and were sent to Nampad Hospital. The patients were to be transferred to the Army’s Vichaiyut Hospital on Friday.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30395909

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-10-09

 

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How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

5 minutes ago, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

Google Maps not working?

14 minutes ago, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

It was a navy helicopter after all ! water

7 hours ago, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

It,s one of those submarine hunting helicopters searching for one of Mr P,s new toys......

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/a-helicopter-carrying-a-princess-chulabhorn-medical-team-crash-lands-near-sirikit-dam/

 

A helicopter, carrying a 6-member medical team of Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn, crash-landed near the Sirikit Dam in Thailand’s northern province of Uttradit Thursday night.

 

 

35 minutes ago, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

Have you ever asked anyone here for directions?

30 minutes ago, tracker1 said:

It was a navy helicopter after all ! water

 

13 minutes ago, petermik said:

45 minutes ago, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

It,s one of those submarine hunting helicopters searching for one of Mr P,s new toys......

 

As it is a navy helicopter, didn't anybody think about them having to do night time landing practice exercises for the new subs they've just purchased ??

 

[my timing is off by 13 minutes. Need more thread snipping practice]

 

Edited October 9, 20205 yr by RichCor

Obviously these Pilots are training to be Submarine Captain's !

As pictured on the sales brochure

 

As experienced by the passengers

1 hour ago, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

easy done; helicopter, Thai pilots, sailors trying to fly; its in one or all of those three items

Mistakenly landed in a river.....maybe the smooth water surface made the pilot think it was a road.  Or he was flying over heavily forested terrain and knew setting the helo down in a river (which was surely shallow) would definitely be better than setting the helo down on the top of trees where the helo would then tumble/crash from treetops to ground. 

 

I doubt he had a lot of time or options in where to set the helo down.

 

 

As Spike Milligan would have said..."he's fallen in the water"!

They might be saying "mistakenly landed in the water" because it sounds better than "the helicopter broke so they had to ditch it somewhere".

Looks like the navy can add one helicopter to the shopping list

Thai pilots have the same training as car and motorcyclists.

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

mistakenly landed in the Uttaradit’s Nan River

With news like that I anticipate future headlines like:

 

"New Thai submarine runs aground trying to 'enter' coastal road"

"Captain: 'We mistook it for the Chao Phraya estuary'" 

Emergency landing? CAAT something wrong with your system? Oh I forgot you a C (civil) so you can not control these guys ????

As others have suggested, probably the only place he could find/reach that had no tree cover. If he was autorotating (gliding using his rotors) due to engine failure then he would have very limited options.

Anyway, looking at it now, I think we can use the words of an old Somerset railwayman I once knew:

"Tis all wore out you, twill never pull another train!"

On 10/9/2020 at 11:49 AM, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

He thought he was driving a submarine

On 10/9/2020 at 5:49 PM, Maverell said:

How the heck can you land in a river by mistake ?

What is so hard to understand? The river simply was at the wrong location. 

Hardly a landing!