Not laughing today - Helicopter crash?

[keista]

So I'm sitting and putzing on the computer, procrastinating all the things I have to do. I head an odd thud, kinda like something big being tossed in a dumpster. No dumpsters in the area, but neighbors are always doing projects and such so I didn't think much about it. Then I start hearing an occasional Whoop from a police car -the short sound they make when they are trying to get through congested traffic. So I go outside to see if anything is going on. Sure enough, there are at least 10 police cars on my street and I can hear the sirens of a firetruck coming up. No smoke, and they are all (except the ones blocking the road off) congregating around the house just 4-5 houses down from me. A driver who had gotten "stuck" on my street, drove by and said something about a helicopter crashing. ??????? Nah! Where? So I look down the street, and sure enough, they are not going in and out of the neighbor's house, but heading through the fence into the abandoned orange grove! Hmmmmm So that's what that noise was.

So Yeah, I'm OK and so are my neighbors, but that was REALLY close to my house - less than a football field away. I called the tip in to the local news, hoping to hear what exactly happened, and if everyone is OK.

 

[keista]

Confirmed. It was a helicopter. A small personal one. That explains why the crash was not a booming noise.

Also confirmed that pilot and passenger are OK. Cop said they "walked away". I guess landing on the old trees was a great cushion.

Now my road is still blocked off until the airport ppl show up and do their own investigation.

 

[hearts and roses]

Omg, how scary! We live near the airport, but not that close. Once in a while they change their landing path and fly overhead. It can be quite loud. On many occasions I've woken up thinking that a plane was about to land on us!!!!

Glad everyone is okay - good thing they landed amongst the trees!

 

[tiredmommy]

Scary! I'm glad no one was hurt. We live fairly near to an air force base and small regional airport PLUS a water border with Canada. We have C-130's fly training missions within a half mile, the Cessna's flight paths take them right over my garage (!!!) and we often have small aircraft/helicopters looking for illegal border crossings and doing search and rescue over the water. Occasionally, we get a very low flying border patrol copter or sheriff copter and we know to get in the house since they are chasing someone down, using spot lights and search teams. As a matter fact, that's what made 09/11/01 so eerie for me... there was absolutely no aircraft noise since everything was grounded. Our skies are seldom quiet here.

 

[Hound dog]

OMG

Glad no one was hurt.

 

[HaoZi]

As a matter fact, that's what made 09/11/01 so eerie for me... there was absolutely no aircraft noise since everything was grounded. Our skies are seldom quiet here.

That was freaky. I lived out in the boonies at the time but there was an AFB 30 miles away and lots of local farms with crop dusters plus the regional airport 20 miles away, so it was rarely quiet. It was soooo eerie during that no fly time. Where we are now there's rarely any air traffic, and what there is is usually the flyboys from the AFNG and the occasional medical copter from the city north of us.

 

[AnnieO]

On 9/11, I lived in a small apartment about 3 miles from the AFB I work at now.

At 3 AM - I was awakened by many helicopters flying out. I assumed they were leaving the safe haven here and returning to the coast. Still, it could be.

At 8:45 - ish, I was at work in Xenia when a coworker came TEARING in from the back. Told us.

That afternoon (got gas for $1.419 at lunch time, and I'll never forget that), I was headed to my parents' - it was EERILY SILENT. And then - BOOM! ...BOOM! I pretty much tried to duck under my dashboard. Sonic booms are not unusual around here, but with the extreme air silence, it was scary.

I'm glad the people walked away. Trees are good cushioning, I guess.

 

[keista]

As a matter fact, that's what made 09/11/01 so eerie for me... there was absolutely no aircraft noise since everything was grounded. Our skies are seldom quiet here.

Same here. At the time I lived about 10-15 miles form and AFB (actually may have been a different branch of military, but it was a "plane base")

I am literally around the corner from an Air Park. Turns out it was two guys flying in from Canada and they were trying to stop to refuel.

 

[DammitJanet]

Trees are good cushioning. I was taught to aim for water or trees if it was a crash landing...a field or straight unused road if I could put her down safely. Though that was with a single prop plane and not a helicopter.

I live right in the flight path of Fort Bragg (or one of them) and we hear their planes coming and going all the time. In fact, when they do bomb training we can actually feel it here and we are well over 40 miles or more from where they do the training but it still shakes the house. Im so used to it all it doesnt bother me. I see the planes overhead and just kinda wave at them...lol.

 

[gcvmom]

Never a dull moment!

We live on a hill that gets frequent fly-overs by small aircraft heading to and from a municipal airport in the next county. One day a Cessna flew over our yard and the engine was cutting in and out. husband followed it to the end of our yard and watched as it attempted an emergency landing on the road below. It made it to the road but crashed through some concrete equestrian fencing. Fortunately no one was hurt, but we were all a little unnerved by the proximity to our house!