Helicopter Crash Closes Snowbird's Mineral Basin

[thetrailboss]

Two Army National Guard Helicopters on an exercise collided over Mineral Basin. The ANG said there are no injuries, but both helicopters are damaged. They crash landed just below the Mineral Basin Express. Snowbird has closed the Tram, Little Cloud, Baldy, and Mineral Basin lifts.

Two Black Hawk helicopters crash near Snowbird; no injuries reported

No crew members were injured after two Utah National Guard Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a training exercise near Little Cottonwood Canyon.

ksltv.com

 

[Edd]

Awesome nobody was hurt, buuut, get that shit out of there.

 

[ThatGuy]

I wouldn’t want the military conducting exercises where I’m skiing. They don’t have the best track record for that.

1998 Cavalese cable car crash - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[x10003q]

Training exercise? Yeah, right. There are over 2 million acres in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and they are doing training over a populated section with lift cables all over the place. Not buying it.

Joyride.

 

[Edd]

Snowbird and their customers cannot be happy with being bottlenecked to the front side.

Vail’s going to get jealous as they’re probably running out of excuses to shut down lifts.

 

[jimmywilson69]

holy shit glad no one was hurt. The west is huge why are they training over the ski resorts? Makes no sense...

 

[drjeff]

holy shit glad no one was hurt. The west is huge why are they training over the ski resorts? Makes no sense...

Probably for the same reason that various wings of the Air National Guard train over ski areas, and other populated areas of the Northeast.... It's the type of terrain that the pilots are looking for to practice various flight maneuvers

 

[jimmywilson69]

I get it, but in the case of Utah there are plenty of craggy mountains without ski areas and people around to buzz

 

[ThatGuy]

Probably for the same reason that various wings of the Air National Guard train over ski areas, and other populated areas of the Northeast.... It's the type of terrain that the pilots are looking for to practice various flight maneuvers

It is awesome to watch the jets buzz by Mt Snow.

 

[drjeff]

It is awesome to watch the jets buzz by Mt Snow.

Coolest fly over I ever experienced while skiing was at Sugarbush 3 years ago, when a couple of the jets from the Green Mountain Boys roared over the top of Castlerock as as my friend and I were almost to the top terminal! That was awesome!

 

[abc]

Probably for the same reason that various wings of the Air National Guard train over ski areas, and other populated areas of the Northeast.... It's the type of terrain that the pilots are looking for to practice various flight maneuvers

I guess I didn't realize they do that, seriously.

Obviously in the northeast, they have to train somewhere. And there're not too much empty land so they'll have to fly over populated area. But I have the same question as others, but in the west?

 

[drjeff]

I guess I didn't realize they do that, seriously.

Obviously in the northeast, they have to train somewhere. And there're not too much empty land so they'll have to fly over populated area. But I have the same question as others, but in the west?

As I understand the logic behind it, there is a component about where they train which is based on proximity to their home airfield. If they're flying a multihour training mission, more cost (fuel) efficient to have the training mission starting closer to the airbase that having to say fly an hour or 2 to/from the air base to begin the training mission. Heck, where I live in Northeast CT is under a corridor that I believe is part of the regular training flight pattern for what looks to be the C-17 transport jets, as fairly regularly (a couple of times a month from what I see) there's a 2 or 3 of them flying in close proximity at a relatively low altitude. Wouldn't be surprised if that's some of the same sqaudron of planes that I see from time to time in the Mount Snow area as well as over the Lakes Region of Central NH

 

[ThatGuy]

Coolest fly over I ever experienced while skiing was at Sugarbush 3 years ago, when a couple of the jets from the Green Mountain Boys roared over the top of Castlerock as as my friend and I were almost to the top terminal! That was awesome!

Last summer deep in the Adirondacks we had a few fighter jets circling over us. It was astounding how loud they were and the maneuvers they could perform. Pretty crazy machines, I’m sure flying one is an amazing experience.

 

[jimk]

Very sorry to hear of Snowbird heli crash. Hope no one hurt. I picked a good day to go to Solitude.
BTW, I was skiing in Mineral Basin on Feb 1 when there was so much heli activity in the same area that I took this (not very good) photo of a helicopter landing beside the chairlift in the same area as today's crash.

 

[TahoeDad]

Coolest fly over I ever experienced while skiing was at Sugarbush 3 years ago, when a couple of the jets from the Green Mountain Boys roared over the top of Castlerock as as my friend and I were almost to the top terminal! That was awesome!

Green Mountain boys always ripped thru the mountains - summer time as well.

 

[Dickc]

Black Hawk Helicopter Crash Video

Video Courtesy of Tom Carney

www.abc4.com

This has video of the crash. They dissapear in a big cloud of blowing snow. I think loss of visibility is the cause. This is also an approved landing spot for the UNG.

 

[Kingslug20]

Holy crap...

 

[thetrailboss]

Snowbird and their customers cannot be happy with being bottlenecked to the front side.

Vail’s going to get jealous as they’re probably running out of excuses to shut down lifts.

I was just about to say, tongue in cheek, that Cummings no doubt shut the lifts down to save money and conserve the thin ranks.

On a powder day, and a Holiday Week, that will bite him in the ass. He seems to be an expert at that.

 

[jimmywilson69]

that's crazy! they were trying to land next to an operating ski resort! Makes no sense to me...

I wonder if when they kicked up the snow cloud the density of the snow in the air messed with their lift and brought them down? that or they just couldn't see and hit each other, which is more likely.

 

[Hastur]

Ikon is really wreaking havoc out there.