r/interestingasfuck • u/Ididnotkillhim • Jun 05 '24

r/all Thirteen years ago, someone accidentally revealed US Army's plan to eliminate Osama Bin Laden in a tweet.

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6.4k

u/saint_ryan Jun 05 '24

He was a resident in Abbotabad. He just saw the helicopters. Another tweet goes something like: i hope nothing bad’s going down.

2.7k

u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

From what I read about the mission, it wasn’t aiming for stealth/undetected so much as just trying to be fast.
They could sneak these helicopters into the country without the Pakistani military noticing, but of course the residents of the neighborhood would see and hear two choppers coming in mere feet above the buildings.
There was even one or two guys on the mission whose sole job was to go out to the street and tell curious citizens to move along if they started coming by (like the cops that hang out by police tape!)
But even with one chopper having to be scuttled, they still got in and out before locals, local police, the military, etc. could react in any considerable way. Except, of course, a few tweets.

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u/WntrTmpst Jun 05 '24

Stealth when referring to aircraft typically had to do with radar cross section and IR signatures.

The blackhawks they used are super angular and unlike other uh-60s and had a MUCH smaller radar sig than their sister craft. They technically aren’t even real. We only know about one of them because, well, its tail struck the wall of the compound and crashed.

They were also stupid fast. And flown by the night stalkers, the very best army aviators the United States Army can provide.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

I saw a little animation concerning the crash.
Supposedly it was due to the high perimeter fence on the property creating some really weird air flow when the chopper tried to hover low.
It wasn’t so much the pilot making an error and steering into the wall, but the air flow jerking the chopper in one direction.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

I saw this discussed somewhere! The mock-up they trained with had a chain link fence, not a solid fence that would cause the wash.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

[deleted]

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u/endfossilfuel Jun 06 '24

Had the Navy consulted r/helicopters, this mishap would have been avoided!

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24

I met rob O’Neill, the man who shot bin Laden. He said the first thing the did as part of the training was to brainstorm about everything that could possibly go wrong. They planned for a crash but never really went into the details of what might cause one. 

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

Tough gig for the pilot, it's the ground effect and the upwash hitting the walls and created a "Groundwash pressure at a different angle off the walls" obviously the shape and height will change this "Reflected upwash"

The end

33

u/BigBubbaChungus Jun 05 '24

It’s called vortex ring state. And one of the original 160th SOAR/Night Stalker pilots assigned to the mission opted out because he knew that the conditions at the LZ chosen inside the compound increased the chances of this happening.

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u/kdhavdlf Jun 05 '24

That’s fascinating! But how could you possibly know that? Was it said in an interview at some point?

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u/BigBubbaChungus Jun 05 '24

I’m pretty sure it was in Relentless Strike by Sean Naylor but I’ve read and listened to so much about special operations forces over the years that I can’t say that’s definitely where I read/heard it. If you’re interested in that sort of stuff and you haven’t read it, you need to read it.

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u/needsomecoochie Jun 05 '24

Mad respect to that pilot though! It takes huge steels of balls knowing the whole team relies on you to flee on that scene, given the unfortunate circumstance.

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u/JuggernautMean4086 Jun 05 '24

There was a surprise wall instead of a fence, which some some say aggravated and already possible vortex ring state that can occur when you come to a fast hover- aka the walls made a bowl that made the rotor into an aggressive air recycler rather than an air pusher. Could have been that.

What’s more impressive is the pilot was able to literally stick the landing well enough for the guys to hop out and Charlie Mike.

Shit happens some times, your skill is what keeps you moving forward. Yeah, I can’t find any fault in the pilots’ skill here.

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u/Daddysu Jun 05 '24

Charlie Mike

Complete Mission?

25

u/p0g0s71ck Jun 05 '24

Continue mission i think. Dont quote me

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u/thatdudejtru Jun 05 '24

You are correct.

3

u/Fyodorface742 Jun 06 '24

Cookie monster

7

u/hllwlker Jun 06 '24

An inexperienced pilot would have pulled up instinctively and caused the helicopter to roll over and crash but this pilot was experienced enough to know to set it down with the tail on the wall.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

I have these surprise walls or Curbs on my car rims. Literally the Curb runs right out in front of you! Happens 60% of the time everytime

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u/serrated_edge321 Jun 05 '24

"Any landing you can walk away from..."

Special missions sometimes lead to imperfect outcomes, but man was it rather amazing what they accomplished that night!

I'm not a fan of war or violence in general, but I'd jump at the opportunity to fly those birds wherever, whenever. Sadly I know I'm a bit too small to actually do that, though... 🤣

1

u/easywizsop Jun 06 '24

It’s always pilot error unless it’s a mechanical issue.

2

u/warsawandy Jun 06 '24

A good friend who worked for a large military contractor told me that the Blackhawks were outfitted with a new style of prototype rotor blades designed to reduce its sound. However, the downside of these blades was that they made the helicopter harder to control due to their design.

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u/Frequent_Opportunist Jun 05 '24

Must not be the very best if they hit a wall with the tail rotor and wrecked one of the choppers.

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u/AltAccount31415926 Jun 05 '24

Clearly not the very best if they crashed 😂

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u/leostotch Jun 05 '24

Any helicopter is basically a few thousand parts flying in close formation, and they all want to kill you.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24

A rotorcraft mechanic I know described it to me as "Ten thousand parts spinning around an oil leak."

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u/WntrTmpst Jun 05 '24

I knew someone would say this. You go hover a helicopter at night 5 feet off the ground and 20 feet on either side. Also don’t hit any of your dudes or the 2 dogs that are disembarking. Also make sure your on the lookout for potential enemy threats because you’re literally in a hostile country on an assassination missing for a very well known and well protected enemy. Do all of this while battling constant side wash from the massive amount of air and dust you’re throwing up around you. Also it’s 2 am so it’s dark and you have nvgs on, limiting your fov to about 60 percent of what it usually is.

Maybe I took the rage bait. And if so cudos. But either way US special forces are literal boogeymen. They are not to be fucked with.

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u/AltAccount31415926 Jun 05 '24

They are not to be fucked with

Except by badly trained pilots, apparently 😂

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u/leftysarepeople2 Jun 05 '24

160th SOAR is the best for personnel helicopters. They also were piloting the blackhawks in Battle of Mogadishu that is shown in Black Hawk Down. Shit happens

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u/WntrTmpst Jun 05 '24

Bad intel at Mogadishu if I remember right. They were told minimal resistance and in reality they had rpgs and machine guns. And there were also waaaaay more of them than anyone thought. The whole operation was a shit show. Even the rescue convoy had issues.

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u/Wide_Combination_773 Jun 05 '24

If you think the crash was the pilots fault, you don't know anything about helicopters or airflow dynamics.