Radio România Internațional

Tag: Helicopter

  • Forced landing in central Bucharest

    Forced landing in central Bucharest

    A US Army Black Hawk helicopter was forced to land on Thursday in central Bucharest, in Charles de Gaulle Square, bringing down 2 lamp posts during the procedure.



    The aircraft was part of a group of 6 helicopters training for the Romanian Air Forces Day on 20 July, and for a ceremony the following day to mark the end of Romanias nearly 20-year long military participation in the international mission in Afghanistan.



    The images shot by eyewitnesses indicate that the helicopter, which had reported technical problems, suddenly lost altitude and flew over the vehicles moving on one of Bucharests main boulevards, before landing in a roundabout cleared by the police in time to avoid a possible tragedy. Two cars were damaged, but nobody has been injured.



    Because of the incident, the military parade on Air Forces Day will not include aircraft flights, and Hercules and Spartan aircraft having taken part in the missions in Afghanistan will take part in the 21 July ceremonies. The decisions were made by the Romanian defence ministry, which cancelled the training flights scheduled for these days over Bucharest for the 2 events. “Citizen safety is very important to us, which is why measures have been taken to prevent such incidents in the future, the ministry said.



    The military prosecutors office started a criminal investigation in this respect, according to spokesman Florin Bobin:



    Florin Bobin: “A criminal case has been opened, to investigate the incident. Most likely we are talking about a violation of Art. 349 – 350 Criminal Code, failure to take and failure to observe workplace safety and security measures. We are complying with all the relevant regulations, including the Treaty regulating the presence of the US military forces on Romanian territory.



    The US Embassy in Bucharest announced it was closely monitoring the incident involving the American helicopter, and said it was working with the Romanian authorities to address the situation.



    Black Hawk is a 2-engine military helicopter produced by the US company Lokheed Martin. Romania plans to purchase 12 such helicopters for around 270 million euro, with the funding coming from the state budget and EU sources. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • July 15, 2021 UPDATE

    July 15, 2021 UPDATE

    CEREMONY An airshow part of the military parade next
    week, to mark Romania’s Aviation Day on July 20th and the end of the
    Romanian mission in Afghanistan on July 21st, has been cancelled
    through an order by the Defence Minister. The decision came after the incident
    on Thursday when a US helicopter on a training mission had to make an emergency
    landing in downtown Bucharest. Nobody was wounded in the incident and the
    material damage was low. Only two lampposts fell and damaged cars. The end of
    Romania’s mission in Afghanistan will be marked through a military parade in
    Bucharest by the army structures which carried out various missions in this
    country starting 2002 until June this year, when the last Romanian soldiers
    were repatriated. 27 Romanian servicemen have been killed in action in
    Afghanistan and over 200 have been wounded since the first deployment of
    Romanian troops in this country.








    COMMISSIONER Romania must double its vaccination efforts this summer as only
    30% of its adult population has been vaccinated says the European Commissioner
    for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides who is to pay a visit to Romania
    on Friday. According to this EU official, the highly-contagious Delta variant,
    which has been identified in Europe represents a major risk for people who
    haven’t got the jab. Vaccination is the most powerful weapon against virus
    variants, the European Commissioner went on to say. According to a communiqué
    issued by the European Commission Representation in Bucharest, EU Commissioner
    Kyriakides will be meeting Health Minister Ioana Mihaila and pay a visit to the
    vaccination center in Petresti, southern Romania. The talks will be focusing on
    the EU’s vaccine strategy, Romania’s vaccine rollout as well as the guidelines provided
    by the European Health Union.






    COVID-19 Only 62 new Covid-19 infections were reported on Thursday in Romania out
    of roughly 25 thousand tests conducted. Authorities have also announced three
    Covid-related fatalities. 300 patients are being treated in hospitals and 54 in
    ICUs. In spite of the small number of infections, authorities in Romania are
    fearing the highly-contagious Delta variant, which is to become dominant in autumn.
    In their opinion, the only way to prevent this situation is to vaccinate as
    many people as they possibly can until autumn. Since the vaccine rollout kicked
    off in Romania on December 27th 2020, 4.7 million people have been vaccinated
    in Romania and since authorities are far from being satisfied with the number, they
    have been constantly looking for ways to step up the vaccine rollout in this
    country.








    CLIMATE The European Commission on Wednesday proposed
    ambitious measures to reach its climate goals. Together with the distribution
    of national targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, these are likely to be
    subject of heated debates among the 27 EU member states, Reuters notes. The
    proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% compared with 1990 include
    increasing costs for emissions generated by heating, transport and the
    industrial sector, taxing the fuel used in air and naval travel and banning,
    from 2035, the sale of new diesel and petrol cars. In Romania’s case, the
    target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will increase from 2% to 12.7%. The
    plan will be negotiated with member states and the European Parliament.






    (bill)

  • SMURD helicopter crashes in the Republic of Moldova

    SMURD helicopter crashes in the Republic of Moldova

    A pilot, a co-pilot, a doctor and a nurse died on Thursday after a SMURD helicopter flying them to Moldovas Cantemir County crashed close to the Romanian border. It was the last mission for the rescue team flying to help transfer, to a hospital in Chisinau, a patient who had just suffered a heart-attack.



    According to eyewitness reports, the aircraft crashed due to the bad weather, as visibility was very low. The aircraft caught fire upon hitting the ground, leaving the four people onboard no chances of survival. Shortly after impact, the site of the crash was located, nearby a local forest. Built in August 2014, the helicopter had passed all safety inspections, the most recent one in February 2016. The pilot had over 4,000 hours of fly time.



    Monica Dajbog, spokesperson for the Romanian Interior Ministry, gave us more details: The pilot had a rich experience. He had 4,181 hours of fly time, while the co-pilot had 1,480 hours of fly time. The doctor had been going on SMURD helicopter missions for 5 years, while the nurse had been flying on similar operations for 11 years.



    Military prosecutors in Bucharest have started a criminal investigation into this case, while a mixed committee of specialists from Romania and the Republic of Moldova are conducing inquiries into the circumstances of the crash. The two countries have an ongoing cooperation agreement in the field of emergency situations, which also covers joint rescue missions involving helicopters of the SMURD emergency service.



    The protocol was signed in February 2014 and is part of a wider agreement on cross-border cooperation between Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. A SMURD center was opened in Balti, equipped with ambulances provided by the Romanian state. Helicopters from Iasi and Galati have already been on 19 rescue missions in the Republic of Moldova. The last several years have seen several air crashes involving medical personnel.



    The last such incident was over a year and a half ago, when a SMURD helicopter, carrying the pilot, the co-pilot, a doctor and a nurse, crashed in the Siutghiol Lake in south-eastern Romania. Another tragedy that shook Romanias emergency medical system occurred in January 2014, when two people were killed and another five were injured after their plane crash-landed in the Apuseni Mountains, at an altitude of 1,400 meters. The team was flying from Bucharest to Oradea to collect the liver of a donor who had just died of a stroke.