Sea Kings Don't Float - They Plummet

Well, the navy... ah... air force... lost another Sea King yesterday. Luckily no one was injured in the mishap. As of writing, and I've been holding back waiting to hear more, there is no initial assessment as to cause of the accident.

The helicopter was doing night deck landings on HMCS Athabaskan's flight deck in the seas off Denmark. It is one of the trickier things to do with a Sea King and a mistake can, well, put you in the water.

"Everyone is A-OK," said Cmdr. Chris Dickinson

Hmmm. Being positive is a good thing. Sometimes.

"An exciting evening. The kind we don't want to see."

It interrupted the movie.

Cmdr. Dickinson said the Sea King tried initially to land on the warship, but flew off to try again. It was making a second pass when it went suddenly into the water.

Well, at least the ship was already at flying stations.

Cmdr. Dickinson said the Sea King flipped onto its back in the water, stayed afloat for a few moments, then sank to the bottom.

Funny how they do that. Have you ever noticed they all do that? No one ever seems to deploy the flotation on the gear nacelles and the damn thing sinks.

Cmdr. Dickinson said the loss of the chopper wouldn't affect the ship's mission.

He has to say that. In truth, unless that helicopter was constantly unable to fly, Athabaskan has just had her anti-submarine warfare capability reduced by 70 percent. The crew however, will not have to go to flying stations again for the remainder of the deployment, and for that they will be forever thankful.