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Originally Posted by Aerion
I knew a couple of old Loach pilots from Vietnam. They swore that the Loach was the most crashworthy helicopter in Army Aviation. It had to do with the inherent strength of the teardrop shape of the airframe.
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The Loach
was suprisingly good at surviving crashes, and my fiance's dad was shot down 3 times in a Loach and survived all three crashes with nary an injury. The problem was not the crashworthiness, it was the fact that the small arms fire often killed pilots and co-pilots. He himself was shot twice while (well during two incidents, he was actually shot 4 times) flying Loaches. He also lost at least 10 pilots/co-pilots during his two tours in Vietnam and all my research indicates that the only remarkable part of his experience is that HE survived, not that he lost so many crew partners. Additionally, Loach pilots who survived being shot down were often lost behind enemy lines and in the close vicinity of enemy troops. Loaches often operated alone and at extreme low altitudes where their exact position was not known by friendly forces (unlike with jet pilots who are tracked by friendly radar). That makes for poor conditions for recovering downed pilots.