A TOP secret Russian-made helicopter has been spotted being flown by a “secretive US unit”.
A Mi-17 Hip-type helicopter made an emergency landing in a North Carolina field owned by farmer Dan Moore.
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Shortly afterwards a dark grey Bell 407 also arrived carrying replacement parts.
It’s thought both helicopters may be part of a “shadowy US military aviation unit,” according to The Drive.
Moore, who is a member of the Civil Air Patrol, and has been a pilot for a number of years, said the helicopters landed in May but shared his story with the aviation journal The Air Facts this week.
“I received a call from my neighbor saying, ‘Hey, did you know there is a helicopter in your front yard?'” Moore wrote. “Wait, what? A helicopter? In my yard? I was confused, but also primed and ready to return the favor when I figured out somebody had made an emergency landing at my farm.”
“Living in North Carolina, there is a lot of military activity in the airspace around me… So my answer to my neighbor was, ‘Huh? No. No idea what is going on. What kind of helicopter?'” Moore continued. “My neighbor, who is in the special forces at Ft. Bragg [a major US Army base in North Carolina] said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen one like it. Some big military thing.'”
It turned out the helicopter was a Mi-17-type painted in a tan and brown camouflage scheme.
Moore took photos and video of it. It had at least a black-painted section behind the exhaust.
The images though don’t show any obvious markings to identify who the operator is.
According to The Drive the helicopter was fitted with military features such as a sensor ball Turret under right cockpit side and additional armor panels on each side.
There was also a large particle separator fitted to the front of the helicopter’s two engine intakes.
According to the report, the tail boom was covered with antennas. This included a platter-type antenna, which is commonly used in high-frequency satellite communication (SATCOM) systems.
HELICOPTER LANDS FOR EMERGENCY REPAIRS
Moore told his neighbour to give his phone number to the crew and a short while later got a call from the crew chief who told him the Mi-17 would need to stay on his property until it could be repaired.
“My answer?” Moore stated. Moore stated, “There is a white truck at the barn. The keys are inside it. You can go into town to find what you need. There is a full-service machine shop in the barn with all the tools and supplies. You can visit the shop to get the tools that you need. I’ll be there in two hours.”
The crew chief though didn’t take him up on his offer.
When Moore eventually returned to his farm he found the helicopter’s crew removing a hydraulic cooler, which apparently was the cause of the problem.
“I found the pilot and we chatted about what was going on. I explained that he’d landed at the single best place to put down he could have,” Moore agreed. “He seemed pretty non-plussed till I explained that the pasture where he was sitting had power lines running through it till about a year before when I’d moved them to make the runway. He also realized that the rest of his flight route was either swamp, trees, or houses. When he understood what I was trying to say, Moore became a little more sour. He was in the only safe place he could put down.”
Moore and his son chatted with the crew for a bit longer and as they were about to leave, learned that spare parts were on the way.
The spare parts were delivered by the Bell 407 a little while later.
According to The Drive the Bell 407 looked similar to three other aircraft that were seen flying in Los Angeles in January.
The Bell’s crew unloaded its cargo and left relatively quickly.
The Mi-17 was fixed and sent off to an unknown destination the next day.
It isn’t known what organization the helicopters belong to or who was flying them.
‘SECRETIVE’ US ARMY UNIT
“These guys were all former military and they were doing some sort of REDACTED for REDACTED. It was all very hush hush,” he said, adding that they told him they “were visiting from out of state.”
The War Zone explored a number of possibilities as to who might own the Bell 407s that appeared over Los Angeles, saying it was likely they were owned by a highly “secretive” US Army unit known as the Aviation Technology Office (ATO), based at Felker Army Airfield, part of Fort Eustis, in Virginia.
The Flight Concepts Division, (FCD) was the previous name of the ATO. It is known to have strong ties to the CIA.
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