Last night around 1630GMT, one of British International’s Sikorsky S-61N MkII Reg G-BFFJ made an emergency landing in a field behind my house. Due to the hilly terrain of where I live in North Wales, it was lucky to find a flat peice of land!
I didn’t see the crew with it this morning, but apparently it has an engine fault and is waiting a part for it this afternoon, probably via air! It was ordered to land immediatley once the fault developed.
Anyway there is one shot of here last night, and three from this morning when I popped down to see here, and hoped for a flightdeck shot:D. And if anything else happens i’ll post it here!
As I said, you don’t see one of these in your field very often hehe! (Only if you live near a Heliport etc:rolleyes: )
Cheers
By: Manston Airport - 23rd December 2007 at 19:15
We get Hawks, Tornadoes, C130’s, F16’s, Eurofighter, Chinooks, Sea Kings and many more here every day, as were in the Mach loop
Oh fantastic I always wanted to visit the Mach loop lucky sod 😀 A nice village nice sencery and fast jets flying low what more would you want 😎
James
By: bmi-star - 23rd December 2007 at 11:56
Well when no one was looking open the door and sit in the cockpit and cabin 😀 Yeah not much happens there your way you say you get RAF choppers training? I see in one of your pictures a welsh thing that people say about :diablo:
We get Hawks, Tornadoes, C130’s, F16’s, Eurofighter, Chinooks, Sea Kings and many more here every day, as were in the Mach loop
By: steve rowell - 23rd December 2007 at 07:15
It’s absolutely filthy..maybe lack of maintenance brought it down!!
By: Manston Airport - 22nd December 2007 at 19:28
The door was closed so I couldn’t have sat in the flightdeck sadly.
Well when no one was looking open the door and sit in the cockpit and cabin 😀 Yeah not much happens there your way you say you get RAF choppers training? I see in one of your pictures a welsh thing that people say about :diablo:
Regards
James
By: Newforest - 21st December 2007 at 17:01
Hmm…you can tell that not much happens here eh James! The door was closed so I couldn’t have sat in the flightdeck sadly.
She departed from Blackpool earlier in the afternoon, and was on her way down south, just funny she headed in a NW direction when I saw her 1st!
Aah, probably a compass malfunction as well!:D
By: bmi-star - 21st December 2007 at 16:22
Hmm…you can tell that not much happens here eh James! The door was closed so I couldn’t have sat in the flightdeck sadly.
She departed from Blackpool earlier in the afternoon, and was on her way down south, just funny she headed in a NW direction when I saw her 1st!
By: Manston Airport - 21st December 2007 at 16:09
When you was there this moring could you of sat in the cockpit 😀 See the sheep liked the look of the helicopter . I bet its the gossip of your village at the moment and around near christmas too shame its all over now and thanks for posting about aswel 😎
James
By: bmi-star - 21st December 2007 at 15:09
Just to let you know she took off safely. Saw her leaving with the Eurocopter southbound as I entered the village.
On further enquiries, I found out her gearbox was in trouble too and that what caused the initial divert!
Excitement over 😮
By: bmi-star - 21st December 2007 at 13:07
Just got back, and they didnt say much!!
All they said was that there was a small engine fire, and that it should be ok after fitting a part, which they didnt say what. Should be gone when i’ll be back sadly! The Eurocopter has just left too.
Heres two shots of the view from my garden. Sorry not the best, 8X with a lot of glare!!
Cheers
By: bmi-star - 21st December 2007 at 12:32
As I was typing, Eurocopter AS-355N G-STON has arrived. I’m going to rush down and see whats happening!
By: bmi-star - 21st December 2007 at 12:24
The guys over on PPrune also thought the same thing Paul, and from what I heard last night, she did have engine problems.
Cheers Mark! Totally didn’t expect it. I’d seen her fly over about 10 mins prior to when I saw here on approach. Looks like she was heading in the direction of RAF Valley or she was looking for a place to land, and she’d found our valley.
To be honest, I thought it was nothing as RAF choppers had been in the area all day on a training mission, and my guess was that it was something to do with that. Then it hit me that it was one of BI’s machines, and that it was decending! I had a superb view as the room where I am now, overlooks the valley, so thats how I saw her coming.
If I head to the bottom of the garden, I can see her, and at the moment, there is nobody with her. Sadly I have to go out about 1ish till about 3ish, so knowing my luck she’ll be gone by then. But I still want that flightdeck shot 😀
By: Mark L - 21st December 2007 at 12:00
Nice catch mate! Was it just by chance you saw it coming in then?
Make sure you get some shots of the rescue mission too!
What on earth was that doing in North Wales anyway! Shuttling between Penzance and Aberdeen perhaps?
By: Paul F - 21st December 2007 at 11:57
Looks serious?
That staining on the port side of the engine compartment and rear fuselage doesn’t look good – suggest it may have been a little more serious!
Looks to me (as a total novice on these things) like they may possibly have sufferred an engine fireor overheat and triggered the fire extinguisher?
Or are the S61s always that discoloured in that area?
Paul F
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December 21, 2007 at 10:31 am