Night kite-fliers pose hazard

Strings get caught in helicopter rotorblades

The army has warned helicopter pilots to beware of villagers flying kites at night in the three southernmost provinces.

The army suspects they are trying to obstruct military operations.

``In the past two weeks, several villagers have put up large kites at night and left them there all night. Our helicopter pilots have to fly with care, especially during takeoffs and landings,'' an army source said. Black Hawk, Cobra and UH1H helicopters had hit the kites. Strings from the kites became entangled in the rotors.

The kites were usually found in communities and hillside areas suspected to be sheltering bandits, but villagers insisted they were doing nothing wrong, and the army said it was hard to stop them.

Villagers said night-time kite flying was a tradition, and helped them to figure out the wind direction for going fishing.

--Bangkok Post 2004-03-28

Can a piece of string really do any harm to a rotor powerful enough to lift a hellicopter weighing several tons? Seems very unlikely to me.

ASIC

Can a piece of string really do any harm to a rotor powerful enough to lift a hellicopter weighing several tons? Seems very unlikely to me.

ASIC

And I really wonder how low they fly those choppers at night anyway.

Can a piece of string really do any harm to a rotor powerful enough to lift a hellicopter weighing several tons? Seems very unlikely to me.

ASIC

Little is mentioned of the size of the string, little is mentioned of the size of the kites. I guess if the strings is thick and strong enough it could cause some problems.

Don't fly the kite, or you'll go blind, I'm told.

Don't fly the kite, or you'll go blind, I'm told.

Or get warts on your palm(s)!