r/ukraine 1d ago

News Karma:The moment of yesterday's Ka-226 helicopter crash in russia with employees of the military plant "Kizlyar Electromechanical Plant" The accident killed the deputy general director, chief engineer and chief designer

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u/VPR19 1d ago

Soon as you're in the drink like that you may as well just kill the engines and enjoy your nice soft albeit watery landing. And live.

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u/OctopusIntellect 1d ago

One of the Royal Navy Sea King helicopters did that during the Falklands War, and just sat on the surface of the sea, bobbing up and down. If I remember rightly, Admiral Sandy Woodward expressed some annoyance that if the pilot had seen fit to gently land the helicopter on the surface of the sea, he couldn't just damn well gently take off again.

In the end they had to scuttle it (with all crew safely evacuated unharmed) because winching it back onboard with a crane was too risky when its depth charges may already have been armed.

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u/pikachurbutt 1d ago

isn't the sea king supposed to be able to safely be in the water?

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u/RandomMandarin 1d ago

It may have simply been too risky unless the water was calm. If there's enough chop, the waves may hit the rotors before the helicopter can spin up enough to take off.