Navy helicopter down at Okehampton range

[BrettMRC]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3pdv1gl41o

Not sure if a Wildcat or a Merlin yet, nothing on ADSB showing it's routing, but you can see the S&R come down and circle the area.

Fingers crossed everyone is ok.

[Trevatanus1]

Hoping for the best, reports of “loud bangs” at around 3am

[Wafu7]

Reportedly a Merlin:
https://www.navylookout.com/royal-navy-merlin-heli...

[Landlubber]

Hope the guys made it out.

[BrettMRC]

Eye witness accounts don't sound promising.

[swanny71]

Just up the road from us, didn’t hear anything but my Mrs was caught up in the road closures on her way to work.
Hoping for the best for the crew.

[theposhboy]

Old school friend I've lost touch with last couple of years flies Merlins (pretty sure) for Navy, very much hoping he wasn't in it and whoever was has got out ok

[darreni]

I can't imagine anyone has survived that.

I'd maybe consider removing the pic.

[mattyn1]

While I know it's available elsewhere, I am rather sensitive to the result of this. Would you please consider taking the image down? I ask this respectfully and politely.

edit... thank you.

[PinkTornado]

Sadly looks like a total fatality, doesn't it? Awful.

[GIYess]

Very sad! When something goes wrong in a helicopter, there's no second chances.

[normalbloke]

GIYess said:

Very sad! When something goes wrong in a helicopter, there's no second chances.

Not quite accurate.

[Geneve]

GIYess said:

Very sad! When something goes wrong in a helicopter, there's no second chances.

That is not correct - engine failure, tail rotor failure, and multiple other incidents are all manageable and trained for.

Catastrophic failures, in any flying machine, are rare but more serious.

It should be remembered that the helicopter’s unique capabilities and versatility allow it to operate in high risk environments, which can be attributed to some accidents.

[bristolracer]

Im about 10 miles north of the crash site.
We had a chopper go over the house very low at about midnight last night, I wonder if it was the same one?
They sometimes come over at night presumably on exercise.

[gotoPzero]

Looks like no forward speed on impact - which gives me some hope that someone got out. The main issue is it does look like its rolled on landing as the main rotor is in bits in all directions. The post impact fire has been huge though.

[zsdom]

https://x.com/defencehq/status/2062159408637845854...

[BrettMRC]

[The Redcoat]

UK MOD now reporting that three people were killed in the crash (source: https://x.com/i/status/2062159408637845854).

[ralphrj]

gotoPzero said:

Looks like no forward speed on impact - which gives me some hope that someone got out. The main issue is it does look like its rolled on landing as the main rotor is in bits in all directions. The post impact fire has been huge though.

Apparently an eye witness reported the helicopter on fire before it hit the ground.

[Gary29]

Sad, RIP to the lost.

Is it telling the tail rotor blades are still attached? I'm by no means an air crash investigator, but if they were spinning at impact, wouldn't they have been ripped off?