Raf hellicopter - loosing its door

Bluenarf

Was at the salthill airshow today. when walking towards the car, i turned round to see a hellicopter taking off, then all of a sudden what looked like a door seemed to fall from it.
Anyone know what happend? or have any more info?

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Paul.
www.paulsnet.org

stevecrow74

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055110980&page=3
its mostly here

No offense, but those people could've easily dodged that door. I mean it took a good few seconds to hit.

Video here

ha ha

I think that consitutes an attack on Irish soil. Let's invade Britain.

Taken from the comments, excellent.

Steyr

That fell like a leaf, they had loads of time to dodge it, those Merlin Helicopters are made of Composite Materials infact the new Irish AW139 Helicopters are made of the exact same mateiral and by the same company ( AW= Agusta Westland ) so they are light but strong, either way the media has blown the whole thing out of proportion as always making what was a very enjoyable day look bad when it wasnt bad atall!!!

randylonghorn

Deleted User wrote:

No offense, but those people could've easily dodged that door. I mean it took a good few seconds to hit.

True, but
... it came down at an angle, and a bit unpredictably as to direction
... most people will freeze for a second or two when something unexpected happens unless they have been trained to respond instantly
... assumes they were looking in the right direction, and actually saw it detach from the heli, and had the full time to react.

Good that no-one was seriously hurt. Whatever arguments there might be about other aspects of the airshow, SAR helis / crews are definitely on the side of the good guys, from anyone's perspective. Pity that their rep. should be tarnished in any way.

Ronan|Raven

Shame it didnt land on the baloon flying crew. (the helicopter that is not the door)

kmick

I see the RAF are trying to 'blame' the Irish crowd saying someone must have tampered with it. For shame.

Chris_533976

For shame? Thats the most likely thing that happened. Some git pulled the emergency release lever on the door. Granted, the RAF should have noticed it before they took off, but still its only here that some drunken fool would pull the emergency release 'for the craic'.

Sounds harsh, but its proboboly true

cornbb

Steyr wrote:

That fell like a leaf, they had loads of time to dodge it, those Merlin Helicopters are made of Composite Materials infact the new Irish AW139 Helicopters are made of the exact same mateiral and by the same company ( AW= Agusta Westland ) so they are light but strong, either way the media has blown the whole thing out of proportion as always making what was a very enjoyable day look bad when it wasnt bad atall!!!

It was an enjoyable day alright but in fairness it probably wasn't that much fun for the people who had a helicopter door fall on them, composite material or not.

Steyr

cornbb wrote:

it probably wasn't that much fun for the people who had a helicopter door fall on them, composite material or not.

No way really? I thought they enjoyed it......:rolleyes:

modalcommand

There is actually sick people out there who have a fetish for doors falling on them so I wouldn't be surprised.

daveg

Deleted User wrote:

No offense, but those people could've easily dodged that door. I mean it took a good few seconds to hit.

Yes I'm sure those 3 people who got hit saw it fall and thought right I'm gonna see if I can headbutt that. What a stupid comment :rolleyes:

Mencius

I heard no one actually got hit by the door, that they got injured trying to get away..lol

Steyr

Its not the first time something like this has happened and certainely wont be the last, as always the bloody media turn it into something huge and it isnt atall, like for instance..an RAF Chinook lost the port hatch over Southampton, also a Chinook lost its main gear at The Abingdon Airshow, And a Puma that lost its Bubble window, eight foot strop and Ladder over a town...... the Ladder ended upright in some old dears lawn, whilst the strop took out a coal bunker...A Royal Navy Lynx lost the cabin door near the Kenyan coast some years ago.

There are sadly many incidents of emergency doors falling after the general public have has had access to yellow and black levers, and it usually concludes with crew members in deep doo doo. This is an understandable loss to the genuinely interested public who respect keepng their hands off 'controls'.

cmcd

Steyr wrote:

That fell like a leaf, they had loads of time to dodge it,

That may be so, but if it had been a toddler in a pushchair beneath the falling door, it would have been a different story. I suppose you could say to the crumpled child "You know those Merlin Helicopter doors are made of a Composite Materials infact the new Irish AW139 Helicopters are made of the exact same mateiral and by the same company ( AW= Agusta Westland ).

snubbleste

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport also said in a preliminary report published today that RAF crew members of the Merlin helicopter failed to check the door handle was in the correct position before taking off.

The report concluded that a member or members of the public had tampered with the "emergency egress door handle while the helicopter was being viewed at the static display park.


http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0628/breaking46.htm

Msfc

Just heard on the news that someone unlocked the dorr while it was on display but it isnt believed to be malicious!!! In fairnes would it not have been a priority to check everything before they took off, especiall when it was on display to the public.