Helicopter Carrying Yazidis Crashes in Iraq: Report

[Purveyor]

Source: NBC NEWS

A helicopter carrying Yazidi refugees away from an Iraqi mountain crashed on Tuesday, killing the pilot and injuring a war correspondent for The New York Times who was on board, the newspaper reported. Members of the Iraqi parliament, including one who belongs to the Yazidi minority, were also believed to be on board, a senior Kurdish intelligence official told NBC News.

The helicopter, which belonged to the Kurdish government, had dropped off aid for the Yazidis and picked up evacuees, the newspaper reported. A Kurdish official told the newspaper that rescue helicopters later took the Yazidis to safety. The newspaper identified the correspondent as Alissa J. Rubin, its Paris bureau chief. It said that she had suffered broken wrists and an apparent concussion but was conscious. Tens of thousands of Yazidis have been trapped for days in the Sinjar mountains of Iraq, cornered by fighters from the Islamist militant group ISIS. The United States has dropped food and water to the refugees. The Associated Press quoted an Iraqi military spokesman as saying that the helicopter was Russian-made. The spokesman had no details on casualties.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/helicopter-carrying-yazidis-crashes-iraq-report-n178681

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Iraqi Aid Helicopter Crashes After Too Many Refugees Try To Board

Two New York Times journalists have been injured in Iraq after a helicopter carrying aid to refugees on Mount Sinjar crashed.

Correspondent Alissa J. Rubin and freelance photographer Adam Ferguson were on board the Iraqi military aircraft when it came down.

It is reported the pilot was killed in the crash and 20 passengers were injured.

In a statement, the New York Times says the two journalists have been airlifted out of the region to receive medical care.

Ms Rubin suffered concussion and broken wrists.

The Mi-17 helicopter was delivering aid to the minority Yazidi sect on the mountain. Reports say it crashed after too many refugees tried to climb on board.

MORE...

http://www.newstalk.ie/US-pledges-support-for-new-Iraqi-prime-minister

[TwilightGardener]

1. Here's a crazy idea: no more journalists and unnecessary people on these helicopters

taking seats away from desperate, dying Yazidis.

[KoKo]

3. Journalists need to report on what is going on with the rescue missions...

Two journalist reporting on their plight and what is really going on over there are aiding the Yazidis rather than harming.

Sounds like there there was a miscalculation with a rushing crowd trying to board and the pilot couldn't lift off correctly.

Sad anyway for all of them.

[TwilightGardener]

4. They already did. There have been at least three reports I've seen on video.

These journalists on this flight have already been "scooped", they're unnecessary. Don't take up room and add weight--every journalist that stays off equals more aid that can be dropped and one more refugee that can board.

[femmocrat]

2. I was posting the same story. Purveyor beat me by one minute.

Here is a link to the article I was posting. It is from a different source.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/world/middleeast/times-journalist-iraq.html?_r=0

[KoKo]

5. Another NYT article says they don't have enough helicopters for rescue....

so the people flood the relief aid helicopters in desperation to get out. Got to be hard on the pilots who aren't trained in rescue to be besieged by those desperate to get out and the people who get left behind. It's a job for the UN to deal with but how can such a large number of people be transported out?


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Iraqi Relief Flights Rescue Dozens, but Leave Thousands Behind

Dramatic images posted online Monday showed small numbers of Iraqis driven from their homes by extremist militants scrambling aboard military helicopters in the Sinjar mountains, where tens of thousands of people, mainly from the Yazidi religious minority, have been stranded.

Like Christians in northern Iraq, followers of the ancient Yazidi faith have been pressed to convert or face death by fighters from the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that has seized control of parts of Nineveh province where the sect’s adherents are concentrated.

The Iraqi military has been trying to relieve the suffering of the Yazidis with air drops of essential goods and small-scale evacuations by helicopter. Jonathan Rugman and Philippa Collins of Britain’s Channel 4 News documented one of the relief missions, flying from the northern Iraqi city of Zakho on a helicopter stocked with food, water and dehydration salts.

“At one point, one of the airmen began punching and kicking refugees because they were besieging the aircraft and they were in danger of overwhelming it, in their battle for a seat,” Mr. Rugman reported. “So what you had, the scene was this: the crew was throwing out more cardboard boxes of aid through the door and, in the opposite direction, old men and women and children were scrambling to get aboard the helicopter to escape their ordeal.”

Tweets & Photos at Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/world/middleeast/iraqi-relief-flights-rescue-dozens-but-leave-thousands-behind.html?action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

[Plucketeer]

6. And to think...

WE set this debacle in motion. Yeah McCain - let's bomb, bomb, bomb some more! After all - it worked so well when you were raining death in SE Asia.

[happyslug]

7. Seems to be overloaded, do to heat of the area.

The US Purchased 30 MI-17s for use by the Afghan Army, due to its ability to work in high altitude and high temperatures:

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2013/06/mi17-helicopter-buy.html

The Mi-17 is considered an excellent helicopter:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/mi-17.htm

While the Mi-17 is a great aircraft in high temperature environments, all transport LOSE its ability to life with high temperatures.

Paper on Air Density: As Temperatures raises, Air Density DECREASES, A Humility increases, Air Density DECREASES, as you go higher in the atmosphere. Air Density DECREASES.

Lift is related to Air Density, the more dense the air the more lift, the less dense, less lift. Thus as temperatures go up, as you go up in attitude and humility increases, what an aircraft can lift goes down.

We are talking about a HOT August day, in the Mesopotamian area of Iraq (i.e. between the rivers, what the Greek Word Mesopotamia means), being between the rivers, higher Humility then the surrounding desert, and being in the mountains higher in altitude, thus all three work together to make the Helicopter less able to lift. In fact it may be that the lift ability of the Helicopter was reduced so much that it had to lift with only half its load area loaded with people. Thus it appear to have seats (and may have had open seats) but the helicopter MAY not have been able to lift off with all of the seats filled. i.e. it looked EMPTY when it was FULL. Thus people jumped into the empty seats and the Helicopter was over loaded and crashed.


https://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_content.aspx?cID=103&sID=442&preview=true