Syrian Mid Air Collision

[WhisperJet]

Stunning how this bird made it home safely...

http://avherald.com/h?article=45671063&opt=0

Cheers,

Nick

[DaveB]

Certainly very lucky that's all the damage was. Not so lucky for the helicopter that hit it! Fortunate that some fin remained. I doubt the crew had much difficulty getting it back on the ground though of course, they'd not be in a position to know exactly what damage had been done

ATB
DaveB

[Chris Sykes]

Yeah guess it would be the usual control checks, loads of rudder and no movement would have shown a rudder problem. Damn very lucky and it could have been worse.

[Chris Trott]

There seems to be a lot of skepticism about this accident. I tend to agree that the location and type of damage is suspicious for a rotor strike, especially as it suggests that the aircraft somehow passed under the helicopter and then began climbing or the helicopter descending in mere milliseconds and then was able to parallel the flight path exactly to create a horizontal cut and not impact the horizontal stabilizer.

I have to say, it just doesn't add up. I might believe the damage if they said that the plane had an actual number of passengers on board that can be carried (Syrian Air's A320s have a 150-seat arrangement, not 200), and if they said the tail hit the belly of the helicopter, not the rotor. The damage just doesn't fit rotor damage. The Mi-8 rotors are titanium and moving at a very high speed. You don't get "smashing" damage, you get shearing damage. That damage is smashing/ripping.