AH-64 Crash

The pilot was executing a maneuver known as "return to target"

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c6_1332299048

Reckless flying & an impressive video !

Was he really flying recklessly or was the helo just not producing enough lift?

Reckless flying or not, I'm just glad to hear that no one on the ground was killed and the pilots survived.

Let's hope so. That was well out of the envelope.

gotta love that emergency shutdown, or he would have been a fireball on the 2nd impact./

He was doing a dangerous maneuver there, which was totally uncalled for so he was just showing off and was not able to pull up in time. Idiot. I pity the helo.

It's actually designed to do just that. Upon impact, the engine doesn't suck fuel from the airframe due to it no longer spinning. In this case there was no need for the pilot to initiate an emergency shut down. The engines were already off at impact.

Edit: I've done a few Apache crash investigations in my 20 + years of T700 Engine Series So far, they've all walked away. Pretty survivable aircraft. If I recall, the seats stroke at a +9 G impact, providing the AC a "cushion" upon impact.

With more and more of these live leak videos showing pilots "hot dogging" it w/moves like this or all the jet low passes buzzing people, I wonder if the videos ever get seen by commanders and the pilots are grounded...

If you're going to do something stupid, make sure no one is recording it...

Man, the tail rotor must have taken a hammering - seeing the entire chopper spin like that around its main rotor mast was both spectacular and terrifying at the same time.

For the helo experts here. Did he just cfit or were the rotorblades stalled out?

To me it looks like he failed to properly account for the local air density.

In this case, altitude is everything. He was well below minimum for that stunt.

Guaranteed he is not in the Army anymore. Stunts = boot.

Hammered us in school and at unit that if we were caught doing stunts like RTT's it was instant discharge. I have seen a Warrant caught one week, next week he was no longer in the Army.

Scout's Out!

Pretty amazing that no one was killed.


Wheels