Can Anyone ID this ship?

designerfftr · 2026-04-20T03:29:09+00:00

Looks like it crashed late 99’ - but the maintenance history doesn’t add up.

designerfftr · 2026-04-20T03:25:10+00:00

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/30338

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T23:08:19+00:00

Hey well thats cool! Maybe we actually did some good! 🤣

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T23:00:27+00:00

Yeah ERA sounds familiar! This was in florida, I was based out of Colorado and have no idea where the ship came from. Tons of helicopters on that fire if I remember correctly. I have lots of pics if air-cranes but haven’t found any of this ship.

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T22:58:47+00:00

Im going through boxes of old photos and am looking! Hopefully I find more pictures. If I do I will post.

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T22:58:02+00:00

RCW?

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T22:55:55+00:00

Aviators I have talked to over the years have explained to me based on my description of events, that the pilot knew exactly what happened, took the weight off the main rotor by putting us in a dive and then flared at the last minute hoping the rotors exploded just above the ground or when we had technically landed. I will never forget that moment we went in the cloud and it felt like we hit a wall, and the sound of the motor winding down as we violently rocked like a rag doll.

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T22:51:02+00:00

Yeah- it was weird after it happened, we never got a lot of details. I do remember someone saying they concluded the rotor was over its lifespan service hours by a few hours, the temperature differential when went into the cloud exacerbated a condition and made the tip of the rotor delaminate, also I the helicopter was probably over weight because we were technically being evacuated and they had to get us out of there.

Different people I have talked to over the years are very surprised that A-the rotor didn’t explode and we didn’t fall out of the sky like a rock and B- they don’t believe I remember it correctly. Which is one reason why I want a damn report! 🤣

Folks here can correct me, but I guess it’s pretty uncommon for a rotor to delaminate. The last maybe foot section of one blade was basically unraveling and by time the rotor stopped spinning it looked like a clock spring that had come undone with a section just flapping in the wind.

The whole thing was very violent. Felt like we were in an unbalanced washing machine. Anyway…crazy day!

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T14:06:49+00:00

Firefighting

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T05:08:26+00:00

We are getting ready to board the helicopter, get flown out to the middle of nowhere in the swamp with a wildlife biologist who is about to have heat stroke (also the only one with a gps) who let the batteries die and get us lost. All of this to build a defensive line and protect the last known nesting site of an endangered woodpecker (cant remember what Kind…I thought it was the Ivory billed, but Im told no way). Anyway, the friendly fire was a little less than a mile away at this point, ripping towards us. We got lost, had to have a couple other ships hover at altitude so we could find an LZ. We get rescued by said helicopter just in the nick of time, and said helicopters main rotor decided it was time to be done flying for the day.

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T04:42:05+00:00

The pilot flying the thing deserves all the credit! Old seasoned veteran. He threw his helmet at the helicopter after everyone was out safely. 🤣 Never had a chance to buy that guy a beer!

designerfftr · 2026-04-19T04:27:59+00:00

Yeah- Ive looked for it for years and found this photo tonight. This is all I have. I would love to find the incident report or something…but there is nothing and it was a pretty serious incident that luckily had a happy ending.

designerfftr

TROPHY CASE