Warszawa 2018-04-06
Accidents and catastrophes of Mi-24 helicopters in Poland.
On September 13, 1988, during take-off at the training ground in Nadarzyce, there was an accident of the Mi-24 D (No. A1013). After a major overhaul, the helicopter was returned to service. Finally, the machine was withdrawn in 2000 and transferred to the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw.
On December 9, 1988, another Mi-24 D (No. A1014) suffered an accident. This helicopter was crashed due to the automatic shutdown of both engines. This machine has not returned to service.
On July 11, 1990, while taxiing for flight, the Mi-24 D helicopter (No. 410458) took off uncontrollably, assumed a vertical position, turned around and collided with the ground. No one was killed in this accident, but the instructor pilot in the forward cockpit was seriously injured. The damage was so severe that the helicopter was never returned to service.
On July 11, 1997, an accident of the Mi-24 W (No. 419731) took place in Zakopane. After the renovation, the helicopter was returned to service, using elements of another withdrawn Mi-24 D helicopter.
On April 4, 2003, the most tragic accident took place at the training ground in Drawsko Pomorskie. Mi-24 D helicopter (No. 340269) belonging to the 49th PŚB. The helicopter, flying at low altitude with a high bank, caught the blades of the main rotor on the off-road vehicle and crashed to the ground. As a result of this disaster, two people died on the spot (including the driver of the car), one in the hospital, and six were injured.
On July 20, 2006, the Mi-24 D (No. 340277) suffered an accident in Iraq. As a result of this incident, two crew members and three journalists were injured.
On February 27, 2009, the Mi-24 D helicopter (No. 220584) from the 49th PŚB crashed. During a school flight from Toruń to Inowrocław near Szadłowice. The crew was to conduct practice shooting. However, the helicopter, flying in a mowing flight, caught on trees and crashed. As a result of the crash, the pilot operator, Lt. Robert Wagner, was killed, and the pilot and technician were injured.
On July 31, 2009, in Afghanistan, during a flight from Kabul to Ghazni province, one engine of the Mi-24 W helicopter (No. 410742) caught fire. Then the second stopped and the helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing. The engine failure was caused by the Taliban firing on the machine, which damaged the hydraulic system.
On December 3, 2009, there was an accident of Mi-24 W (No. 410736) in Afghanistan.
On January 26, 2011, at the Ghazni base in Afghanistan, one of the Polish Mi-24 helicopters suffered an accident, probably as a result of a technical fault or due to strafing. The crew was performing a take-off maneuver (the so-called weighing), hanging motionless 2 meters above the ground, when for unknown reasons the rear propeller was damaged, which led to the fall of the helicopter. The soldiers (four Poles and an American) managed to escape from the machine.
On June 12, 2011, another Mi-24 was damaged at the Warrior base. The helicopter made an emergency landing and touched down violently. None of the four-person crew was injured. The cause of the accident is unknown, it was assumed that the engines might be contaminated during take-off or the effect of rarefied air in the base area.
Written by Karol Placha Hetman