A Soviet-era helicopter landed on a highway and blocked a truck convoy…to ask for directions to the closest village.
An Mi-8 helicopter makes a surprise landing on a highway and blocking a truck convoy somewhere in Kazakhstan. A crew member gets out of the gunship and runs towards the first truck.
He shakes the hand of the driver, and then starts pointing his arms animatedly in different directions, before returning to his place aboard the aircraft. Shortly thereafter, the helicopter takes off again, continuing its mission as if nothing had happened.
This is not a hilarious story but was shown by the video below that spread through the social media.
According to the Kazakhstan Ministry of Defense the helicopter (carrying four rocket pods) was involved in a “planned visual orienteering exercise,” in which trainee pilots were told to determine their location “including by means of human survey.” According to the statement, cited by the local media, the exercise was a “success.”
In other words, the crew member was asking for directions to the closest city after getting lost in poor weather.
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“The helicopter has now returned to the airfield where it is based,” the statement concludes according to RT.
This is not the first time helicopters got lost in bad weather and were forced to land before continuing their mission.
On Sept. 10, 2014, six U.S. Army choppers (consisting of Chinook and Black Hawk utility helicopters) landed in the middle of a rapeseed field in Poland in foggy weather. The American pilots received information leaflets on the municipality, in English, and departed again to their destination about 2 hours later, after the weather improved.
