Ground Forces Commander Major General Sami Turgeman
Photo courtesy of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit
Bird forces GOC's helicopter to make emergency landing
GOC Army Headquarters Sami Turgeman comes out of chopper crash unscathed in fourth close-call incident involving him in last few years
A nerve-wracking incident occurred on Thursday when the black hawk helicopter which had GOC Army Headquarters Major-General Sami Turgeman
and 10 other senior officers on board was forced to make an emergency landing in southern Israel.
Major-General Turgeman left the Bahad-1 Officers Training Base for the Kastina Ground Forces headquarters. During the trip, a bird hit the helicopter's main blade.
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Two air force pilots announce an emergency situation and landed the helicopter smoothly, in spite of the severely damaged blade. No injuries were reported in the incident. An air force technical team was dispatched to the landing site to fix the damages after which the helicopter returned to base.
The officers were forced to walk to the nearest road where they were picked up by an IDF car.
Senior IDF officials noted that luckily, the incident occurred when the helicopter was flying at a low altitude. Had it been flying at a higher altitude, they said, the incident would have had a tragic end.
This is the fourth time the Major general Turgeman has escaped some sticky situations caused by accidents or serious safety mishaps during IDF training exercises in the last few years.
Yossi Yehoshua contributed to this report
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