Scott
08-12-2010, 08:34 PM
A CHINOOK helicopter has crashed in Afghanistan, seriously injuring a Gurkha.
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01103/SNN1225HC-682_1103606a.jpg
Lookout tower crash ... £30million Chinook
The £30million chopper's rotor blades hit a lookout tower as it tried to make a night-time resupply to a Forward Operating Base.
The collision is understood to have demolished a wall next to where the Gurkha was sleeping.
Comrades dug through the rubble for more than half an hour to get him out.
He was given life-saving first aid before being airlifted to Camp Bastion.
The pilot battled to land the badly damaged helicopter outside the walls of the FOB in Helmand's Upper Gareshk Valley.
It is understood the Chinook crew and other soldiers on the ground were unhurt.
A source said: "Losing a Chinook is a worst-case scenario."
It is common for FOBs to be resupplied in the dark as helicopters make less of a target. Pilots routinely fly with night vision goggles and accidents are rare.
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01103/SNN1225HC-682_1103606a.jpg
Lookout tower crash ... £30million Chinook
The £30million chopper's rotor blades hit a lookout tower as it tried to make a night-time resupply to a Forward Operating Base.
The collision is understood to have demolished a wall next to where the Gurkha was sleeping.
Comrades dug through the rubble for more than half an hour to get him out.
He was given life-saving first aid before being airlifted to Camp Bastion.
The pilot battled to land the badly damaged helicopter outside the walls of the FOB in Helmand's Upper Gareshk Valley.
It is understood the Chinook crew and other soldiers on the ground were unhurt.
A source said: "Losing a Chinook is a worst-case scenario."
It is common for FOBs to be resupplied in the dark as helicopters make less of a target. Pilots routinely fly with night vision goggles and accidents are rare.