American helicopters fail spectacularly at G20 summit
- 10 years ago
Landing two 15-tonne military tiltrotor aircraft on a dusty field next to one of Brisbane’s busiest dual carriageways… what could possibly go wrong?
It doesn’t really take much imagination.
The two American choppers managed to cover the width of a Brisbane road in dirt while running through practice drills ahead of president Barack Obama’s arrival at the G20 summit.
Plane spotters told ABC that the last-minute exercises carried out by the United States Marine Corps went without a hitch – aside from an embarrassing moment when the two V-22 Ospreys made a rather dusty landing.
The aircraft touched down with a level of finesse normally reserved for those operated by novice Call Of Duty players, blowing an enormous plume of dust over six lanes of traffic, completely obscuring the road and forcing cars to screech to a halt.
Some were just happy to see the aircraft in action, however.
‘We all know these aircraft purely through cinema, through news, they are like the celebrities of the aviation world,’ gushed ABC radio presenter and keen plane spotter Rhianna Patrick.
It doesn’t really take much imagination.
The two American choppers managed to cover the width of a Brisbane road in dirt while running through practice drills ahead of president Barack Obama’s arrival at the G20 summit.
Plane spotters told ABC that the last-minute exercises carried out by the United States Marine Corps went without a hitch – aside from an embarrassing moment when the two V-22 Ospreys made a rather dusty landing.
The aircraft touched down with a level of finesse normally reserved for those operated by novice Call Of Duty players, blowing an enormous plume of dust over six lanes of traffic, completely obscuring the road and forcing cars to screech to a halt.
Some were just happy to see the aircraft in action, however.
‘We all know these aircraft purely through cinema, through news, they are like the celebrities of the aviation world,’ gushed ABC radio presenter and keen plane spotter Rhianna Patrick.