Thread: Thailand- helicopter crashes

Originally Posted by Calgary

Reports I am hearing indicate this guy was heavily implicated in Red Shirt deaths at Ratchaprasong, including ferrying the dead away to cover the crime.

"Karma" has been enabled, and no tears are being shed around here.

It is heavily speculated that regardless of official explanations and ass-covering about why the military was engaged here, it is most likely associated with enriching military coffers via questionable trade practices.

are you wearing your tin foil hat ?

Discuss the next lumber deal.

They did say they were meeting illegal loggers, right?

Another question. Why were two Thai Special Forces soldiers on the rescue mission?
Long Range Reconnaissence Patrol are Divisional Special Forces...

Relatives of missing soldiers are praying for a miracle

Relatives of missing soldiers are praying for a miracle

By THE NATION
Published on July 21, 2011


Relatives of soldiers who have not been seen since an Army Black Hawk took off on Tuesday are now praying for a miracle.

"I know there will be a miracle," Supitcha Jiamsoong-nern, 35, said yesterday. Her husband of 15 years, Lt-Colonel Praphan Jiamsoong-nern, was piloting the Black Hawk helicopter, which had nine people on board and is believed to have crashed on Burmese soil, about a kilometre from the border.

"I hope that with his experience, he will be able to help everyone on board come home safely," Supitcha said. "I have been praying for a miracle, and I know it will happen because I have faith."

The helicopter was on a mission to Phetchaburi to collect the bodies of five troops killed in another helicopter crash on Saturday. Officials believe the accidents were possibly caused by turbulence.

"I am still full of hope," Malinee Plodpleuang, 31, said, adding that she was praying for the safety of everybody on board. Her husband, Captain Jate Sujai, was on the Black Hawk.

"They were on their way to a good mission. I believe they will be rewarded with safety," Malinee said, adding that she would not give up hope. Malinee fervently believes that the passengers and pilots must be waiting for the search-and-rescue team to show up.

Meanwhile, the Army has sent out many teams to try to locate the missing Black Hawk and those on board.

Boontham Chuchart, a former village head in Phetchaburi, said |he was asked to mobilise a team |of ethnic Karen Thais to help find |the missing helicopter and the |people. "I have managed to recruit more than 20 ethnic Karen Thais |for the purpose. We are divided |into three teams," he explained.

An informed source said the helicopter crashed near a Burmese military base and the Army was waiting to hear from Burma as to whether there were any casualties.

"The Army has asked Burma for permission to bring back the people on the missing helicopter, be they alive or dead," the source said.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the five soldiers killed in Saturday's crash were retrieved yesterday.

The bodies were airlifted from a hill in vast forestland and brought back to the Kaeng Krachan Special Warfare Unit in Phetchaburi, where the victims were identified.

Their bodies were later taken to a hospital in Kanchanaburi.

The bathing rituals for bodies will take place at 5am today at the Wat Thun Ladya Temple. Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha will preside over the rites.

Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the families of the killed soldiers would be compensated because they died while on duty.

Thai and Burmese Troops Search For Helicopter Survivors

Thai and Burmese Troops Search For Helicopter Survivors

By SAW YAN NAING
Wednesday, July 20, 2011


Maj-Gen Tawan Reungsri (right) who was among the nine on board the missing Black Hawk that went to recover five bodies of Saturday's helicopter crash in Phetchaburi. (Photo: The Nation)

The Thai Army is cooperating with Burmese government forces in searching for possible survivors from the second military helicopter crash near the Thai-Burmese border on Tuesday.

According to Thai News Agency (TNA), some 100 soldiers started a jungle march to locate nine Thai troopers who were on board the Black Hawk that lost contact and crashed while flying to retrieve the bodies of Saturday's five helicopter crash victims in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Phetchaburi.

Thai Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd told TNA that it could not be confirmed that the chopper had crashed on Burmese soil, but the incident was likely to have occurred near the Thai-Burmese border.

Thai military sources blame bad weather as the cause behind the accident. Heavy rain and strong winds apparently caused the aircraft to lose stability and crash into the mountain.

Thai journalists reported that some pieces of the Black Hawk helicopter went down on Burmese soil, while others say that it was found on the Thai side. The first helicopter flew over the forest as illegal logging was reported near the border. The Burmese side of the border near the accident site falls within Tenessarim Division.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday that Burmese soldiers immediately identified the spot where the second Black Hawk went down and reported the location to the Thai military.

The crash site was said to be near a Burmese village named Pha Mai Daeng, around one kilometer from the Thai border. However, the Burmese soldiers did not mention the fate of the passengers on board the crashed Black Hawk, the report said.

On Wednesday, reports emerged that the bodies of the five soldiers who were killed in the first helicopter crash had already been airlifted out of the area.

On Aug. 28, 1997, there was an incident of a Thai Army Jet Ranger helicopter which was apparently shot down by Burmese government troops, according to Burmese dissidents and news agencies.

The helicopter was flying during bad weather over a small piece of Burma which juts into Thailand, south of Mae Sot, which was a former headquarters of the Karen National Union. Four Thai soldiers including two pilots died in the crash. Thai military sources only confirmed that the plane went down in bad weather.

However, Burmese rebels claimed that the plane was shot down by troops from the Burmese government under Light Infantry Division 32, led by captains Thein Lwin and Kyaw San at that time. Automatic rifles and machine guns were apparently used.

However, Thai officers denied the helicopter was shot down because it was flying beyond the range of ground fire.

The Burmese government did not cooperate with the Thai Army in trying to recover the helicopter and victims' bodies. Thai military personnel were only allowed to conduct a land search for the helicopter after Sept. 15, 1997, and some sources suspect that Burmese troops had already destroyed the helicopter and disposed of the dead soldiers by this time.

It was reported that rebel units at the border had intercepted this information via Burmese Army radio transmissions.

However, Thai authorities, particularly the Defence and Foreign Affairs ministries and security agencies, have not confirmed nor denied the dissidents' statements at that time.

Originally Posted by superman

These are not top quality soldiers. They've been watching too many Rambo movies. Any soldier worth his salt wouldn't strap a grenade to his chest, as per the picture. It's all to easy for the ring pull to be snagged on a branch or other, and setting it off . They may look the part but........

and what are the two blokes sitting on that you can see thro' the open door? A big tree?

Why the trouble finding the black hawk, they must be fitted with Locator beacons ? then again maybe they sold them.

Originally Posted by thehighlander959

There are things that are not right about the photo above.

Why are they wearing berets inside the helicopter? I have served in the military and anytime we were moved by Chopper all head dress had to be removed as it was an FOD (Foreign Object Damage) to the rotor blades and the gas turbine engine.
Seems very slack, I notice the guy with the red beret has a K-Bar knife copy hanging upside down from his webbing (a real K- Bar has a webbing sheath not a leather sheath)

Seems like poor SOP,s to me. (Standing Operational Procedures)

TIT, even the weapons they use are counterfeit to save the generals money to skim off the top!

Very strange also that they're not sitting on their helmets...

I'm an expert on military sitting. I can see by their posture and their pained facial expressions that they're not sitting on a tree and not sitting on their helmets but on...

I thought they sent a helicopter to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed while on a mission to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed.

We should just be grateful they didn't go for the hat trick, they've only ordered three new ones.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I thought they sent a helicopter to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed while on a mission to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed.

We should just be grateful they didn't go for the hat trick, they've only ordered three new ones.

I saw a headline somewhere today that said they were now using mules to recover the bodies!

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I thought they sent a helicopter to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed while on a mission to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed.

"There were five in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over!" So they all rolled over and one fell out, there were four in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over!" So they all rolled over and one fell out, there were three in the bed and the little one said.."

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I thought they sent a helicopter to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed while on a mission to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed.

"There were five in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over!" So they all rolled over and one fell out, there were four in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over!" So they all rolled over and one fell out, there were three in the bed and the little one said.."

More like there where 10 green bottles,sitting on the wall.....

Originally Posted by crippen

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I thought they sent a helicopter to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed while on a mission to retrieve the bodies from the helicopter that crashed.

"There were five in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over!" So they all rolled over and one fell out, there were four in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over!" So they all rolled over and one fell out, there were three in the bed and the little one said.."

More like there where 10 green bottles,sitting on the wall.....

Or "Itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the water spout. Along came the rain and washed the spider out.."

And Mid is right about the flying - expensive toys in the hands of a hi-so that ain't there for his skills. Then again the Yanks did crash a helo when they "caught Osama". They mangled another one on the botched Tehran Embassy rescue bid in 79.

At least the Thai Airlines pilots have a fairly decent record. At Cathay they use pretty much all Gwilo pilots.

TAN_Network TAN News Network

BlackHawk Crash: chopper found on Burmese side of border, 200mtrs from Huey crash on July 16. One unidentified body recovered.

BlackHawk Crash: Details remain sketchy, search officials try to conserve radio battery,requested for masks, ropes and body bags.

SpringNews_TV says 3 bodies found at crash area. (via [at]aunonline)

Thai rescue team locates downed helicopter in Myanmar; all dead - Monsters and Critics

Thai rescue team locates downed helicopter in Myanmar; all dead

Jul 22, 2011, 6:54 GMT

Bangkok - A rescue team on Friday found the wreckage of a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed this week in mountainous terrain on the Thai-Myanmar border where it had been sent to recover bodies from another chopper crash.

All nine people on board the helicopter died in the crash, Thai television reports said.

Lieutenant General Udomdej Sithabhut, commander of the 1st Army Region, said there was no evidence that the Black Hawk had been shot down.

The military helicopter crashed on Tuesday during a rainstorm in the mountainous Kaeng Krachan National Park area, 165 kilometres south-west of Bangkok near the Thai-Myanmar border. It was on a mission to retrieve the bodies of the victims of a Huey helicopter crash at the weekend.

'The Black Hawk crash site was inside Myanmar, about 200 metres away from Huey crash site,' Udomdej said.

A joint team of Thai and Myanmar soldiers was sent to the double crash site to check for survivors and retrieve the bodies.

There were nine people on board the Black Hawk, the highest ranking of whom was Major General Thawan Reungsri. The only civilian passenger was a journalist for Channel 5 TV.

The mission that crashed on June 16, killing all five on board, had been sent to the Kaeng Krachan park to pick up officials dispatched to the park on July 11 to arrest suspected illegal loggers, but had been stranded in bad weather.

Bangkok Post : Weather took down Black Hawk

Weather took down Black Hawk

• Published: 22/07/2011 at 05:42 PM
• Online news:

The Black Hawk helicopter that crashed on Tuesday, killing all nine on board, was most likely brought down by the extreme weather conditions in the area at the time, according to a senior army officer.

The helicopter did not explode, 1st Army commander Lt-Gen Udomdet Seetabut said on Friday.

It was most probably hit by severe winds in extreme conditions and crashed to the ground.

The helicopter was critically damaged, parts broke off on impact and all nine on board were killed.

The Black Hawk helicopter was sent to transport the bodies of the five soldiers killed in the first helicopter crash in Krang Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi on Saturday.

The severe weather conditions and poor visibility in the rugged area, on the Burmese border, were believed be the cause of the two crashes.

On July 16, the army sent the helicopter and five crew to help lift out rangers, officials, reporters and suspected forest trespassers stranded in the forest. The helicopter crashed.

Three days later the Black Hawk helicopter was sent to bring out the victims’ bodies and all nine people on board met the same fate.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

The Black Hawk helicopter that crashed on Tuesday, killing all nine on board, was most likely brought down by the extreme weather conditions in the area at the time, according to a senior army officer.

run that one past the experienced American pilots .................

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

The helicopter belonging to a Task Force stationed at Ratchaburi army base went missing as it went on a mission to rescue officials trapped in Kaeng Krachan National Park since July 11 while they were arresting members of an illegal logging syndicate.

Everyone knows "thais can't fly" !

The Blackhawk is a cracking helicopter in the hands of the right pilot!!!!
We do not use them offshore although I have seen the the US Navy and Coastguard using them for emergency operations to Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The marine version is called the Seahawk.

I was talking to one of my our field pilots this morning about this problem in Thailand. All he would say is that their training is as good as anyone elses as they go to Flight Schools in the USA or Sweden or wherever they buy the aircraft from.
F-16,s USAF Flight Training, UH-60 Blackhawk US Army Flight Training School,
He says the problem will be that when they pass Flight School in Thailand its not always the best candidates who qualify. Its not what you know, its who you know.
Definitely a Thai problem methinks....