WATCH: The moment a firefighting Huey helicopter performs an autorotation landing in Canada The helicopter suffered a mechanical failure, and its bucket hook became jammed, preventing the pilot from releasing the bucket. Despite the added complication, the pilot executed a remarkably smooth emergency landing. Brilliant work by the crew.... Those pilots are incredibly skilled. Incident from 8/14/26. 📹: rocboltshow more

Looks like it's just parked in a field for refueling. Well done, aviators.

the autorotation alone is already impressive but adding a stuck bucket with all that water drag makes this landing genuinely exceptional

The way I understand it, if your engine fails in a helicopter, you reverse the pitch on the blades and let yourself fall. The wind accelerates your blades, spinning them up so you have all this kinetic energy within the momentum of the blades. Then just before landing, you put the pitch back to lift, and use that energy to slow down your vertical speed before making contact with the terrain. It's probably something pilots don't train for, at least in real life, because it sounds very risky. But maybe you can train in simulators?

Honestly, managing a forced landing with a trapped water bucket swinging underneath takes extraprdinary pilot expertise.

WOW! JUST WOW! As someone who has taught Engine off landings, this is superb - esp since it had the bucket being dragged behind it!

Nine landing. The crew could walk away AND the chopper will be flying again after sone repairs.

Military helicopters use cable cutters built into the hoist system for that reason.

I watched a Huey have to make an autorotation landing during a training exercise at Fort Hood more than 30 years ago, and I can say from having watched that one that these pilots did a BEAUTIFUL job! The landing I watched was also successful, but far less graceful.

@NumanGarry I’m impressed. I also watched a helicopter stringing electrical power, lines wire he had to very precise

@HamWa07 Kind of wild hearing the rotor quickly slowing down and realize that’s his entire energy budget to land safely.

This is not easy, coupled with the bucket complicated the landing. This is really a controlled crash done perfectly by the pilot. Awesome work!!!

A lot of luck with terrain - catching something with that bucket trailing on the ground wound end with catastrophe

If it was truly auto-rotate and not just partial loss of power, that bucket may have actually helped by providing an additional load on the rotor besides gravity, giving a bit more control force. Either way, Hats Off to the pilot!

Wow, autorotation is hard enough. Doing it with a jammed bucket still attached? That pilot is on another level.

How is this an autorotation if his engine is still working ? Its just a normal landing ?

What a pilot. It's always a "chain" of events, never just one failure. Keeping cool under pressure, and alien skills, made for a well controlled great outcome to a really bad situation.

They're probably White. Explains the competence.

That was some seriously impressive flying. He already had a swinging pendulum below, the timing on the autorotation after the weight was removed was perfection

I considered helicopters to be nothing but brute force flying bricks until I learned about autorotation landings. This makes them true flying machines. The pilots that can execute that maneuver in emergencies deserve their title and a lot of respect.

The UH1 is great for autorotation. Its rotor blades are able to retain its inertia for a good part of the autorotation to touch down. Great landing!

Incredible flying. We've added this to the RotorAlert database — it's the 6th firefighting helicopter incident in Canada this year alone. The Bell 214B's high rotor inertia gives pilots more time during autorotation than lighter types — a critical advantage here. Full record:

It is the easiest helicopter in existence to auto.

No doubt ex-military. Also great luck to have such a viable forced landing terrain. As ever, firefighters are lifesavers. Politicians should double their budget, their work is no place to cut costs and pretend to slow government debt spending.

An auto rotation is a difficult emergency procedure to master and is never practiced with a sling load attached. This was a remarkable landing, esp dragging that bucket, requiring great skill. Kudos to the AC & Pilot.

As a fairly frequent chopper passenger, I have asked several pilots about this type of landing and they all seem fairly confident in some scenarios that it's highly achievable. I think most have done this in training. That said, this is one is exceptional. Bravo

Those people are driving by like "oh look a helicopter!" Meanwhile that Huey pilot is fighting for his life!!

Great job, but not sure why he didn't cut the sling loose.

Great job. It's harder than he made it look...

@3TierServices Well done. Wonder why he didn’t punch off the sling load?

Wow. The glide helped keep the bucket out of the way. He is lucky it didn't snag, pitching him forward. Great job!

214B. Big boy. Electrical release and manual (emergency) foot release both fail?! Yikes.

Nice work. Dragging the bucket adds some pucker factor for sure. Nailed it. Bell 204 (UH-1H). Reliable, not that complicated, and if you get to pick the single engine helicopter to have an engine failure in select a Bell204 or a Bell 206. High inertia rotor system👍

A brilliant piece of flying & just 2 days before world helicopter day.

Practicing hovering autorotations (engine failure while hovering), you could literally go back into a hover and do it again because of the high inertia blades.

Hitting a "woah-boy" with a bucket dragging the ground behind you is not even in the flight manual. That guy has been to the rodeo before.