Amazing Rooftop Helicopter Landing

Netlore Archive: Emailed image of a U.S. military helicopter accomplishing a precarious rooftop landing and pick-up in Afghanistan

Description: Emailed image
Circulating since: 2004
Status: Authentic / Slightly mislabeled
Analysis: See below

Email example contributed by MBeck, 2 September 2006:

Subject: Amazing Feat If you don't think our military pilots earn their pay ... you need to take a look at this picture ... and then look again and realize what you're seeing ... Click to Enlarge This photo was taken by a soldier in Afghanistan of a helo rescue mission. The pilot is a PA Guard guy who flies EMS choppers in civilian life. Now how many people on the planet you reckon could set the ass end of a chopper down on the roof top of a shack on a steep mountain cliff and hold it there while soldiers load wounded men in the rear??? If this does not impress you ... nothing ever will. Gives me the chills and a serious case of the vertigo ... I can't even imagine having the nerve ... much less the talent and ability ... God Bless our military!!!!!

Image credit: U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Greg Heath,
4th Public Affairs Detachment

Comments: Authentic and mostly true. The helicopter is a Keystone CH-47 Chinook, piloted by Larry Murphy, an EMS chopper pilot and National Guardsman from Allentown, Pennsylvania. The amazing landing was not part of a rescue mission, however, but rather a pick-up of "Persons Under Control" (prisoners) captured by U.S. soldiers during Operation Mountain Resolve in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan in 2003.

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Sources and further reading:

Keystone Helicopter - In the News
Keystone Helicopter Corporation, 28 January 2004

EMS Helicopter Pilot Gains Company and Worldwide Recognition
EMS House of DeFrance, 4 February 2004

10th Mtn. Div. Shows Its Mettle in Operation Mountain Resolve
DefendAmerica News, November 2003

Last updated: 09/08/06

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