Images of NATO-ISAF helicopters after crashes/shoot-downs

[KhyberKhan]

[RevolutionThroughReason]

One thing to notice is that the crashes are because NATO soldiers are too incompetent to fly and that Taliban have bad aim.

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7910482/Wikileaks-Afghanistan-Taliban-used-heat-seeker-missiles-against-Nato-helicopter.html

Wikileaks Afghanistan: Taliban used heat-seeker missiles against Nato helicopter

Taliban insurgents used a heat-seeking missile to down a Nato transport helicopter in Helmand killing a British soldier, five Americans and a Canadian, the documents show.



A US Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan Photo: Reutersr/Tim Wimborne






By Dean Nelson in New Delhi and Alim Remtullah in Kabul

11:30PM BST 26 Jul 2010


The American Chinook helicopter, code-named Flipper, was struck by a surface-to-air missile shortly after taking off from a landing pad close to the Helmand River, according to a report from May 2007.

It was "engaged and struck," the report said, just after crossing the Helmand River, in Afghanistan. "The missile struck the aircraft in the left engine. The impact of the missile projected the aft end of the aircraft up as it burst into flames followed immediately by a nose dive into the crash site with no survivors."

Corporal Mike Gilyeat, 28, a media operations photographer serving with the Royal Military Police was among those killed.

The documents also detail at least 10 "near-misses" in which missiles were used to attack aircraft. One involved an attack on a plane refuelling at 11,000ft while another involved a Stinger missile similar to the ones used by the Mujahideen during their war to drive out Soviet forces.

At the time of the deaths in 2007, a Nato spokesmen downplayed the suggestion of a heat-seeking missile being used and suggested the helicopter had been downed by a lucky strike from small arms fire. Spokesman Major John Thomas said: "It's not impossible for small-arms fire to bring down a helicopter."

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But evidence from other pilots in the area at the time suggested they were certain it was an attack from a surface-to-air missile known as a "Manpad".
The documents record: "Witness statements from Chalk 3 [another aircraft] suggest Flipper was struck by Manpad."
Two Apache helicopters flying near the crash site later came under fire from more missiles which the pilots reported were "not an RPG... probable first-generation Manpad".
A month later, a British Chinook's missile warning system was activated in similar circumstances when it came under over Helmand. The report read: "The crew looked out their window and observed a projectile with a white-grey tight spiral smoke trail rising from their 7 o'clock. All crew members heard a loud bang and the projectile passed within 50ft of the aircraft."
Then in July that same year, an American C130 transport plane was also targeted by a heat-seeking missile as it refuelled at 11,000ft.
A crew member spotted a "bright flash" and a corkscrew smoke trail, prompting the crew to "dispense flares" just before missiles streaked past the plane.

[faye]

as far as i have learned googling about depleted uranium, helicopters have depleted uranium used in the making of the blades. so these things breaking up and falling to the earth is also not good.