The Bat Helicopter crash yesterday (Monday) in which two Air Force pilots were killed and a Navy officer was injured, is not the first time an IDF helicopter has crashed during an operational or combat operation.
The late Lt. Col. Erez Shahanei and the late Major Chen Fogel. The
heart hurts. You gave your life for the people of Israel and the State of Israel and the loss is heavy.
may them rest in peace.
Sends my deepest condolences to the families.
pic.twitter.com/RkxM2nbGYr
- Naftali Bennett Bennett (@naftalibennett) January 4, 2022
One of the disasters we remember is the helicopter disaster that occurred in 1997 near the town of Shear Yashuv.
Two IDF Yasur helicopters collided over the Hula Valley during the incident, while they led fighters from the Nahal Brigade and the Golani Brigade to operational activities at IDF outposts in the security strip. All 73 soldiers in the helicopters were killed in the disaster. 8 of them were crew members who flew the helicopters. There were casualties on the ground.
An Air Force "bat" helicopter crashed off the coast of Haifa, Shmuel Buharis
Recall that the investigation of the incident did not give an exact reason for the collision, but it is estimated that due to the conditions in which the pilots flew, with night vision and no lighting maneuvering towards entering a combat zone - led to a rapprochement and a collision that led to disaster.
The helicopter disaster was the deadliest aviation disaster involving helicopters, until 2002, when a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Chechnya.
127 people perished in this incident.
Soldiers near parts of the plane after the helicopter disaster, Photo: Reuters
Another air disaster occurred in 2017 when an Apache helicopter crashed at Ramon base, one of its pilots, Major (Res.) Dudi Zohar, was killed and the other seriously injured.
The helicopter was at the end of a routine training at Ramon base when prior to landing the crew reported a malfunction in the helicopter, the helicopter managed to reach the base and when it was at the height of the control tower it crashed between the two runways at the site.
An investigation revealed that the steering wheel of the helicopter was disconnected due to incorrect company instructions.
Also in 2013, two IDF pilots, Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) Noam Ron and Major (Res.) Erez Flexer, were killed while flying a Cobra helicopter near Kibbutz Revadim in the south of the country. Probably due to a technical fault in the rear rotor (propeller) of the helicopter.
The destruction in the rest of the town after the helicopter disaster, Photo: Avi Ohayon
In 2010, during a joint training exercise by the Israeli Air Force and the Romanian Air Force, an IDF storm helicopter crashed in the Carpathians due to a collision in the mountain.
At one point one of the helicopters wanted to get away from his friend to maintain a safe distance, however he approached a mountainside without being able to escape.
In the disaster, Lt. Col. Avner Goldman, Lt. Col. Daniel Schiffenbauer, Major Yahel Keshet, Major Lior Shai, Lt. Nir Lakrif and Lt. Col. Oren Cohen were killed.
The pilot from Bucharest who was killed in the accident is Stefan Claudio Dragana (31).
Organization of an IDF delegation to the area of the storm in Romania, Photo: IDF Spokesman
Another memorable air disaster occurred during the Second Lebanon War, when two IDF Apache helicopters crashed during the fighting during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. In the incident, Colonel Zvi Loft and Lieutenant Tam Farkash were killed while their helicopter crashed on a high voltage line not far from the city. Zefat.
The helicopter was loaded with ammunition and was at a high-altitude observation post.
A week earlier, two Apache helicopters of the Air Force crashed at the 28th junction near Kiryat Shmona. In this crash, Major Ran Yehoshua-Kochba was killed and three other fighters were seriously injured. An Air Force investigation revealed that the two helicopters apparently rubbed against each other in the air, and got into a situation that required a forced landing, the helicopters began to land but crashed to the ground.
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