Navy helicopter video help

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Holger

I think you dont want to be close to the rotors when the machine get stuck in the water. And it was not foreseeable when that will happen.

Exactly correct. The most safe place to be during that event is inside the skin of the helicopter. They preach during the dunker training to anticipate the roll-over (all the heavy stuff is on top of a helo - engines, transmissions, drive shafts - it is going to roll), wait for all motion to stop then exit.

Being outside the helo when it rolls, when the dynamic components hold their Yard Sale when they come apart, is the exact wrong place to be.

Some helos were actually designed to land on the water, the Sikorsky H-3 for example:



The CH-46 was not. The earlier video of the CH-46 rolling is a classic example of the adhesion power of water. The 46 simply did not have enough power available to break away from the surface tension of the water: Think getting a boat "on step". The pilots of the 46 did, IMHO, a great job giving it their best.