Hot shots! U.S. Navy pilots grounded after YouTube video shows them dunking $33m helicopters in Lake Tahoe



Retired general: 'You'd have to be a moron to do that... We don't really have morons flying naval aircraft'

The U.S. Navy has launched an investigation after video showing two pilots dunking a pair of $33million MH-60 Romeo helicopters into a lake was posted on YouTube.

The video - taken by a stunned tourist at Lake Tahoe- shows the two helicopters skimming the surface of the water.



One appears to lose control, spinning and crashing into the water in a near-disaster. But the pilot quickly regains control, pulling the aircraft from the water back into the air.

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THE NAVY'S NEWEST TOY: THE MH-60 ROMEO

The Navy has requested a total of 252 MH-60 Romeos to be delivered by 2015. The twin-engined medium lift utility helicopter is equipped with a single four-bladed rotor and a single four-bladed tail rotor. It has a glass cockpit and replaces most of the analog aircraft instruments with four active matrix liquid crystal colour displays and dual programmable operator keysets. An external pylon on the right of the aircraft accommodates a single weapon or external fuel tank, while the left-hand pylon accommodates two weapons. The Romeo can carry up to three Mk 50 Mod 0 ASW torpedoes or eight AGM-114M Hellfire anti-ship missiles. For self defence the MH-60R can be equipped with a single pintle mounted machine-gun on the right hand side of the aircraft. Its usual missions take it over the open ocean for anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare. The Romeo is RAST (Recovery, Assist, Secure, and Traversing) equipped, which enables it to be recovered in sea state 5 (33 knot winds, 13foot swells, 6 degrees of pitch, 15 degrees of roll) conditions. Its maximum level speed is 154mph, its maximum dash speed is 164mph.

A typical crew for the MH-60 Romeo is a pilot, co-pilot and crewman.



They were forced to land at a nearby airport to be repaired. The damage to the state-of-the-art machines - the Navy's newest helicopter - is estimated at between $50,000 and $500,000, according to local reports.

The Navy has confirmed that the footage is genuine. The helicopters were from North Island's Helicopter Maritime Strike 41 squadron.

Navy spokesman Lieutenant Aaron Kakiel said that though the footage only captures one helicopter crashing, both actually hit the water as they did not have enough hovering power to hold their position.

Now an investigation has been launched into the entire September 13th flight.

The Navy would not identify the pilots or say whether they were supposed to be hovering over Lake Tahoe.

A spokesman did say that the lake is not a normal training area for Navy pilots.

They have been grounded until the investigation is concluded. Depending on the outcome, they could lose their flying qualifications.



Retired Navy jet pilot Steve Diamond told the San Diego Union-Tribune that there may have been more to the incident than meets the eye.



'Somebody has to be a total moron to do it in total view of tourists and in a recreational area, when everyone has a camera these days,' Diamond, who retired in 2002, told the newspaper.

'We don’t really have morons flying naval aircraft,' he said.

'It’s possible they were troubleshooting a problem, you don’t know... It’s easy to make a snap judgment, but there are other possibilities.'

The pilots were on their way home from an air show at Mather Air Force Base in Sacremento.



A different set of pilots flew the aircraft home, Kakiel said. HSM-41, which trains new pilots, dispatched another crew on a commercial flight to fly the helicopters back Sept. 16.