MERGED: Chopper crashes in Cebu; Another Huey falls in Lilo-an!

[salbahis]

mao ni mahitamo nga cge nalang dawat ug junk o donation sa US... mga 2nd hand ug refurbished military vehicle nga panahon pa sa Vietnam War...

mukalit nalang ni og malfunction tungod sa pagkakara-an.... hehehe...

Actually most of this helicopter are maybe made during Vietnam times, but they are upgraded into Super Huey last 2004 in singapore, it uses the same power plant use in latest Bell design, so you can't say that it crash because it is old!, even UH-1 Blackhawk and CH-4 Chinnok fail during their flight!, in some cases!, the airframe of the chopper could be old but not the engine!, it is part of modernazation that old aircraft will be upgrade into modern MilSpec..., FYI: not all of them are donation we buy most of them from their suprlus armory, of course with discount mao may agreement between Govt'!, ang para donation tana katong gi promise ni Bush but it was trash when we pulled out our troops in iraq!, beside it's not just us who use this old timer!, even thailand they still use old aircraft, as well as Indonesia ang Malaysia!

its time for the government to complete the modernization of the AFP... and dont use oldskool helicopters to prevent further accidents

Sir, we don't have enought money to buy it!, ang kantidad sa usa ka blackhawk maka palit na og duha OV-10 Bronco bomber!!, our modernization is already moving!, ang giuna lang ang mga frontline troops!, check here sa mga latest news sa AFP Modernization Program www.afpmodernization.mil.ph, dugay raman nang AFP Modernization during the time of Marcos,pero gi scrap ni Cory!, gipamaligya ang mga na acquire na nato!

what can you expect from flying coffins that were manufactured for Vietnam war. Maski Ace Pilot paka kung imo machine mapalpak tagak jud.

maluoy nlng pud ta sa Air Force pilot, kay maski ila copter pde mo unay nila

All aircraft are Flying coffin!

[dukot_]

tungod daw sa tabanog mao daw na crash

[salbahis]

well it is still in preliminary investigation!, until then the kite theory is not final!!, dugay naman tana nang balaod sa ATO nga bawal nag tabanog 2.5 km from the any airport or airstrip!, pero wala lang ma implement og maayo!

It's not just kite that we to be aware of!, there was an incident long time ago, nga nag crash ang usa Passenger Plane tungod lang sa usa ka langam nga napasok sa properller!!!

[omad]

most accidents specially those involving UH-1 helicopters (Huey) in the Philippines, those the likes used in Vietnam War, would probably be 99 percent caused by either pilot error, poor maintenance or bad weather. what if that 1 percent is caused by another factor, a freak accident, maybe a simple "kite string"...

I used to fly a kite when I was a kid. it started with those old newspapers, paste (kula nga hinimo sa bahaw), ug tukog sa dahon sa lubi and ordinary sewing thread. me and my friends managed to build a good kite using those materials and spend the whole day flying those simple yet sturdy contraptions. as we grew older it then evolved, newspapers were replaced with papel de color, kula nga hinimo sa bahaw became rugby or zoy (depending on material used), then tukog sa lubi became kawayan. we then used a much bigger no. of lambo or nylon so it could hold the bigger kite. eventually, we managed to build a kite, popularly known as saranggola, it was huge, "duha ka dupa" in width with the Chicago Bulls logo with no. 23 underneath it. so naturally, it would need a much bigger string, which is as big as a month old baby's thumb. it would take 3 persons to hold the kite "para tugpo" then another 3 persons to pull it upward. then we had to tie the end of the string to the basketball post as a precautionary measure in case those 3 persons pulling it get pulled by the kite instead.

now back to topic, what if those strings (did that general say "2 millimeters in diameter" which would roughly be 1/8th of an inch) became entangled in the swash plates, which controls the pitch of the main rotor. based on the news story, one kite had a candidates name on it and by that alone that means it's a really, really big kite for it to have a name visible from the ground. that tells me it would need a much bigger string to hold that kite in place. what if that string got into some parts of the chopper where it's not supposed to?

here's an illustration of what could have happened:


As Kevin looked up after a brief gauges check at about 500 feet MSL he saw the box kite looming. "No problem," Kevin told AVweb. "A big box kite is easy enough to evade." If only that was all there was to it. As he took the controls from his student pilot to maneuver around the kite the prop caught the rope, wrapping it up like a winch. A significant drop in power and severe vibrations followed, but Kevin was able to nurse the plane around to Runway 23 and set it down safely.

full story
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what if the rotor blades failed to cut those strings clean-off? it got tangled into whatever place it tangled itself into? it's not called a "freak-accident" for nothing. why do you think the U.S. , Canada, UK and other countries are strict in implementing a 5 mile no kite flying zone? maybe they've learned from experience, same reason why they employ hawks to scare away birds flying near airport runways.

here's a recent accident (bird strike) that caused a Hawk T1 XX352 aircraft to crash.


Bird caused RAF jet crash

The RAF Hawk narrowly missed a farmhouse
A bird caused the crash of an RAF Hawk jet in north Wales last year, military officials have revealed.

The Ministry of Defence has said tests revealed that a herring gull was to blame for the accident near RAF Vallley on Anglesey in which a pilot was injured in February 2002.

Two similar crashes have been attributed to birds in the past two months.

A Military Aircraft accident summary into the crash explained how the pilot of the Hawk T1 XX352 aircraft ejected after failing to regain control of it following the birdstrike.

full story
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"maybe it's pilot error or poor maintenance"..

"we'll get to the bottom of it"..

"we'll update you guys as soon as we get all the facts"

OR

"no comment"

those are the simplest of all PR excuses in the book. why didn't he use those during the press conference instead of "the kite theory". all I can say is that, Maj. Gen. Pedro Ike Incierto of the Philippine Air Force Tactical Operations Command should have waited for the whole investigation to finish so they could get their facts straight. what if it turned out to be nothing involving "a kite" as reason for the crash, he could no longer take back what he just said (even if it's a possibility that time). the thing is, it's already all over the internet as long as you type "helicopter crash - kites" in most search engines. this incident would likely become one of the Philippines lamest jokes, repeated on stage, radio, skits, because of what the general blurted out one Sunday afternoon.

imagine those Amerikano, Hapon and Filipino pabilib-bay jokes: (which the Pinoys always seem to be the winners)

if it's the kite strings indeed, let the local government unit implement the no kite-flying rule. apply huge penalties for each violation.
if it's either pilot error or poor maintenance, then look where the problem lie and fix it. or scrap it altogether.

I'm just tired of excuses..

[dubioz]

Correct! As a matter of fact, Discovery named the Huey the No. 1 helicopter of all time! Ahead of the Blackhawk and Chinook.

Bitaw, the Huey has gotten a lot of undeserved bad publicity. To be fair also, mora'g naka dawat pud ta'g uban na Vietnam era. Here in the Philippines, you have a mix, some equipment are old and some are brand new.

Kanus-a pa kaha ta maka Apache ug Comanche, uy?

Actually most of this helicopter are maybe made during Vietnam times, but they are upgraded into Super Huey last 2004 in singapore, it uses the same power plant use in latest Bell design, so you can't say that it crash because it is old!, even UH-1 Blackhawk and CH-4 Chinnok fail during their flight!, in some cases!,

[Wind Shear]

^^ OT Gamay: The RAH-66 Comanche, the development is already canceled. And as for the AH-64 Apache, murag imposible. The most viable will be a AH-1 Cobra . AH-1 and UH-1 have the same engine and drivetrain.

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Contrary to the press, the picture on the link (several posts ago), are the entangled cable and telephone wires around the swash plates. This is rather stupid publicity by media in a grim accident (Note: None of the media are aviation buffs mao pamataka na lang ug istorya).

But I still believe that the kite flying should be banned within Mactan (or better, within 5-mile radius) because it will hinder the visibility of the pilot especially the landing phase, not the thread spooling to the rotor or propeller.

I knew one pilot in Mactan that he snagged kites in two occassions.

[jonz]

now helicopters are banned no fly..... at the same time no kite........
so who the hell fly that kite anyway.....?
wala na lagi daw na purma ang mao tao sa red tricycle...

[jonleo]

stop blaming the kite! what a hell! it's time to think and realize that corruption would not do good to our country! CHOPPER CRASH HAPPENED IN CEBU WAS A RESULT OF CORRUPTION!

[jonleo]

PAMALIT PA MO OG CHOPPER NA BRAND NEW DAW THEN 1960 PA DIAY NABUHAT OG GIPANG-GAMIT NA PANAHON PA SA GUBAT SA VIETNAM! MA-O NAY RESULTA SA CORRUPTION! HELL!

[Wind Shear]

^^ I don't care that the chopper is designed in 1960s as long as the airframe, engine, and avionics are fresh from the factory.

Well, take C-130 for example, it was designed in 1956 and it still in use by USAF. Fifty one years to be exact. Well, there are three aircraft that are 50 years old in US Air Force (B-57 Canberra (English Electric), B-52, and C-130).

And oh, by the way, UH-1 Iroquois (soldiers nicknamed it as Huey) is older than you think, older than Vietnam War. It was designed in 1955 and first produced in 1959. And the civilan version is Bell 204 and Bell 205.

I know that corruption is one of the cause of weakening of our armed forces, but blaming corruption only is simply dead wrong.

You should read this link (http://www.hueybravo.net/Airforcepage/Huey.htm) before ranting.

FYI