That's gotta be a real cold feeling

Hats off to engineer who designed pole to be strong enough for use, but weak enough to be sliced off by blade without damaging it.

And to be able to design that under military guidelines is a truly monumental achievement

Now it’s a trans CH-53E.

It identifies as an Apache

LOL

The pilot gotta be clenching hard right now.

Pilot making it home in one piece afterwards:

Pilot is like… but that has to be a design flaw 🫣😱😱

At least the probe didn't break the blade. Hopefully it was just a training exercise and he can get back to base in time.

Inflight refueling is dangerous and extremely difficult to do with stable airplanes. The Sea Stallion is a MASSIVE helicopter and I was stunned to see them in person. That sucks, but hopefully he had a close enough BINGO to head to.

Awkward

At least he only ruined it for himself. Sometimes the come in too hot or jerk around after they connect and take the drogue with them...

I'm sure especially if they're on fumes... Also I'm sure they train for that

Flight of shame back home.

I hope he got a new call sign out of it like "Moiel"

He is over land. That is a positive.

Didn’t know the pilot was Jewish…helicopter was 8 days old

Ummmm ..... where's the nearest base ?? Gonna have to refuel the old fashioned way. Lol

We had an A6 intruder Probe break off in our Drouge chute. How it stayed attached when it was reeled in is amazing. It was Kept in Our Maintenance Control and was used as a punishment to any shop that screwed up. Called it the GANORK Award.

Live pilot reaction:

Seems like an problem that should have been prevented by engineering. Surely that came up during the DFMEA?

@Rothmus

I hope some things were re-engineered afterwards. You shouldn't be able to do that if you tried.

They're thanking God for not being a pancake on the desert floor

😱 Lucky the rotor stayed intact!

how that was not catastrophic rotor blade damage is beyond me.. those drogue refuels are dangerous, especially with rotary wing. assuming that video is real and not AI. I don't think the blades can pitch that low to hit the refuel boom. maybe someone more informed can chime in

Most definitely could have been worse.

@ozols_aldis WHOOPSIE!!!

Wonder what the tax payer bill was for that.

When you're low on a gas... yikes

john wayne bobbit.

GUYS ITS NOT FUNNY THEY ONLY DO THAT WHEN THEY’RE VERY SCARED :(

@Rothmus Oof, someone’s in trouble when they return to base 😅

first ever gender reassignment surgery on a CH-53E

Yep you know what’s happing next but you still have to go through the motions.

Is it possible or likely the rotor blades will fail before fuel is exhausted?