An Eurocopter Tiger of the Spanish Army participating at the military exercise Adriatic Strike 2021 impacted a powerline between Senovo and Brestanica in Slovenia.
The crew made an emergency landing in a meadow near Brestovica. No one was injured. Some towns suffered a short blackout.
“There was a collision with an electric power line, due to severe vibrations, the pilot successfully made an emergency landing. Both the pilot and the co-pilot were unharmed, but there was material damage.” As Colonel Mihael Klavžar added , the public will be informed when more is known about the cause of the accident.
The helicopter made an emergency landing after the exercise was over, but it is not yet known whether the accident was caused by human or technical factors. It will have to wait for the results of the investigation, he said. As he explained, ” namely, the black boxes to which this type of helicopter has are incompatible with the systems we have.”
The helicopter landed on the banks of the Sava River not far from Reichenburg Castle. The vital parts of the helicopter are not damaged at first glance, the legs and fuselage are, according to the first assessment, undamaged.
Only the damage to the upper glass window in the cabin and some bent sheet metal around it are visible. The crew was most likely rescued by ‘scissors’ – the aircraft is equipped with special blades that cut the dangerous wire in this case, but the fuselage or legs of the aircraft can still be seriously damaged. This blade was just above the window and the helicopter most likely saved it from a more severe outcome.
Among the fleet of helicopters participating in the 2021 international military exercise Adriatic Strike, the Eurocopter Tiger is the only attack helicopter. The crew consists of a pilot and a weapons operator, the helicopter is 14.08 meters long and the rotor diameter is about 13 meters. It measures 3.83 m in height, empty weighs a good 3 tons, and can take off with a maximum total weight of 6 tons.
The helicopter has room for 1,080 kilograms of fuel, with a range of 800 kilometers, the version of the helicopter with a dome on top of the rotor can reach a top speed of 290 kilometers per hour, and the Brest version of the helicopter without a dome can reach 315 kilometers per hour.
Eurocopter helicopters are used in four armies, the Australian, French, German and Spanish armies. For the Tiger helicopter (Tigers in the French and Spanish speaking areas) we could write that the European response to the American helicopter is the Apache AH-64
