Fri, Mar 21, 2003
War Is Hell -- Even Without Being Shot At...
Scratch two helos (only one, permanently) from the
roster of military aircraft taking on the Iraqis in our second Gulf
War with that rogue nation. However; the Iraqis get no bragging
rights in either case.
In the height of a complex and tightly run series of initial
actions against the Iraqi military, two helos have gone down due to
mechanical issues. Thankfully; none of the six personnel
aboard an MH-53 "Pave Low" Special Operations helicopter or the
crew members of an AH-64 "Apache" attack helicopter were injured in
either incident... the first occurring Wednesday night and the
other Thursday morning.
Damaged in "hard landing" incidents, the MH-53 was ordered
destroyed by US forces in order to keep this technologically
sophisticated aircraft out of enemy hands... though one military
wag e-mailed ANN this morning and noted that anything more complex
than a sling-shot was technologically sophisticated as far as the
Iraqi military was concerned (grin).
Of course; the Iraqi military claimed credit for downing the
Pave Low, but our sources indicate that the bird simply got
clobbered in a hard landing and was unable to be flown out... so it
was destroyed.
The MH-53 accident occurred in southern Iraq and was reportedly
the first known loss of an American aircraft in the second war
against Iraq--though we're told that it occurred BEFORE the start
of surgical military strikes late Wednesday night.
The
AH-64 Apache "hard landing" took place in Northern Kuwait Thursday.
The landing was reportedly due to a mechanical issue that
complicated the approach and landing, and resulted in minimal
damage to the airframe.
The bird was later returned to service.
The US military strongly denies that either aircraft was hit by
any enemy ground fire.
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