A massive Russian Mi-26 Halo heavy-lift helicopter was seriously damaged while taxiing on Yakutsk airport taxiways in Russia. This helicopter is primarily designed for military transport but there are many variants.
seriously damaged
On July 27, images and videos posted on social networks confirm that a Russian Mi-26 was seriously damaged in Russia. This heavy transport helicopter (registered RF-06053) had just landed at Yakutsk airport (Sakha Republic, Russia) and was heading for its parking area. However, the pilot flew the helicopter too close to streetlights, which were used to illuminate the area at night.
Thus, the main rotor blades cut the lamp post in half. As a first consequence, the rotor blades broke on impact or separated shortly after impact, destroying the tail rotor and the vertical stabilizer, both located at the end of the helicopter’s tail boom. At the end of the video, the upper part of the lamppost, cut from its base, falls directly on the helicopter. The photos (tweet below) confirm that there was no fire. It is very likely that this Mi-26 will not fly again, except for an intense repair phase (new rotor, new tail but also the entire transmission located in the tail boom,… and to see if cracks have not been created by the fall of the lamppost).
This helicopter was used by the FSB but no figures from the FSB helicopter fleet are available. It is estimated that in 2022, between 30 and 40 of these helicopters were still in service with the Russian Armed Forces.
