Mystery Helicopter Involved in Osama Raid.

[Joe Copalman]

Not sure if anyone has been following this, but if you've seen the initial photos from the helo wreckage at the bin Laden compound, it's easy to see that the aircraft in the photos is NOT an H-60 or H-47 variant of any kind.  See attached photos below.

Ty Rogoway at aviationintel.com and I were talking about it quite a bit yesterday, and the tail boom and the rotor blades both point to some kind of Huey variant.  Coupled with some reports out of Pakistan that the Pakistani military lost a helicopter during the raid (see http://www.indianexpress.com/news/us-army-helicopter-raid-killed-osama-bin-laden/784452/2) we thought it likely that the helo was a Bell 412 operated by the Pakistani Air Force.  I ran it by John B. last night and he concurred that it's possible.  What a Pakistani military helo was doing at the site of an operation we supposedly did not tell them about is definitely worth a raised eyebrow (if it was a PAF bird, was it there as part of the op, or was it dispatched to investigate and intercept the raid force?). 

This morning, the Daily Mail ran some more photos from the compound, including some of helicopter wreckage being removed from the site: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382859/Osama-bin-Laden-dead-Photo-Obama-watching-Al-Qaeda-leader-die-live-TV.html.  These photos show the tail section of a completely different helicopter - looks like a larger helo with faceted surfaces.  The stabilizer are swept on this aircraft, whereas the ones on the attached images below are the straight slab-type you'd find on a UH-1 type.  The article also shows a burned aircraft that seems to have crash-landed with its tailboom crashing on a wall - consistent with yesterday's photos - but there's nothing in the images that really hint at a type. 

Either way, it looks like either there were TWO helicopters that went down during the raid, with one of them being a UH-1 or 412, and the other being some unknown "stealth" type, or one of the sets of images is faked or not from the raid at all (possible, as some photos of an OH-58D that crashed in Iraq in 2006 were making the rounds in some articles as photos of the crash site).  The tail of the "stealth" helo, for instance, shows a tail rotor with blades that look too short and too narrow to adequately provide yaw control for a larger aircraft, which this type appears to be (look at the size of it compared to the crane in the background). 

I normally detest the conspiracist mindset, and that's not even really where I'm coming from with this.  I just noticed (as did other people) that the wreckage photos from yesterday didn't fit in with the official story of an H-60 going down during the raid, and now these new photos just confuse things even further.  Really interesting story, but nobody seems to be picking it up.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Joe - you are correct this is a very interesting story. Yesterday I noticed that various news agencies had different aerial imagry of the compond. The Daily Mail link you provided shows two different componds - which is it? The news keeps saying that the compond was 100-yards from a military facility; however, I've looked on google earth and the compond identified most often is all by itself in a rural area - certainly not within 100-yards of anything.

It will be interesting as more solid intel becomes available.

[Rob Silliman]

Google Earth - keep in mind that GE's imagery isn't always up to date.  So the image you see may be before the neighborhood grew up around it.  If it has been there for 5+ years - there are bound to be changes.

[Chris Kennedy]

I don't think there's any question about the location of the compound. There are just too many sources that pinpoint it, including the photos showing the burned helicopter. Google Earth now has updated imagery from last year. The military facility they are referring to is a military training school and it's actually about a half mile away. They probably meant 1,000 yards and not 100 yards.

Lots of wrong information comes out at the beginning of these kinds of stories.

[Jay Beckman]

Just bear in mind that the Daily Mail is very much like the National Enquirer...

Add Salt to taste.

[Joe Copalman]

Jay, pretty much all the coverage I've seen of the raid has a National Inquirer feel to it.  Fast trumps facts. 

[Chris Kennedy]

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/secret-stealth-helicopters-ferried-troops-obl-kill-operation

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awx/2011/05/03/awx_05_03_2011_p0-318248.xml&headline=Bin%20Laden%20Raid%20May%20Have%20Exposed%20Stealth%20Helicopter

[cpasley]

Man that photo in Chris' first link looks like one of those art sculptures you buy on the side of the road, now the plus side I think I found a photo of it before the crash, keep in mind these are exclusive photos many risked their live to obtain them

[Joe Copalman]

Haha, you doofus.

The whole "stealth" helo theory is looking more and more legit. 

[Chris Kennedy]

This brings back memories of when the F-177 was being rumored and guessed about. One of the model companies even came out with their idea of what it looked like. Of course, it turned out they weren't even close. Eventually one of these will probably show up somewhere in public view.

Apparently, there was a UAV of some kind overhead during the raid too. There have been mentions of the President and his national security team watching the attack live.

[Joe Copalman]

Rumors are that the UAV feed from the op was from the RQ-170 that's been seen tooling around Afghanistan over the past several months.

[Rob Silliman]

Here is a link which includes a grainy pic of the Beast;

http://defensetech.org/2011/05/03/did-the-beast-of-kandahar-help-kill-osama/

(article has background on the Beast, in addition to the idea that it was involved on Sunday)

- Rob

[jslugman]

I've gone through a giant bag of popcorn and a Big Gulp watching this develop throughout the day...

[Bubak]

http://www.frontsidebus.net/2011/05/the-helicopter-that-crashed-in-the-bin-laden-raid-was-a-secret-stealth-helicopter/

[Chris Kennedy]

http://www.frontsidebus.net/2011/05/the-helicopter-that-crashed-in-the-bin-laden-raid-was-a-secret-stealth-helicopter/

This is the same as the Popular Science story. It is popping up all over the place.