The pilot can even order up an instant replay of the crash to find out where he went wrong. The instrument readings are frozen.Ĭalmly, the copilot explains to the rookie pilot that he pitched the nose of the helicopter too high, causing the stall and the certainly fatal crash. The motions end with the cockpit still locked in the crazy position it was in at the time of the crash. "Freeze!" says the copilot, and time stops. Pilot error has put us into a fatal stall, and the $45 million assault helicopter - the pride of the Marines and Sikorsky Aircraft - crashes. Suddenly, the airspeed indicator unwinds to zero. The giant copter pitches and sways as the inexperienced pilot fights the controls. We are 1,600 feet up and several miles from the landing spot.Ī voice calls out compass headings as ground control guides us in, the three engines of the copter whining loudly in our ears, the thump-thump-thump of the rotor increasingly audible as we near the ground. The field at the Marine base in New River, N.C., is socked in, and our CH53-E helicopter is making its landing approach on instruments.
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