Low flying helicopter - tragic tale

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keeperscottage

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My friend lost her old horse today as the result of a low flying Chinook helicopter. At 9am, a Chinook helicopter flew over the field at about 100 - 150ft (estimated by yard owner who has private pilot's licence). A workman at the yard saw another old pony and sheep panicking in the field but, not being "horse orientated", ignored the situation. At 1pm, my friend's horse was found in a ditch after crashing through a post and rail fence (plus stock wire fence). A local farmer tried to winch her out of the ditch, but without success. Vet was called, horse was sedated and removed from the ditch, but, at 31 years old, she could not get up and was subsequently put down. My friend is distraught. She had owned Penny since she was 7 years old and was a birthday present from her long term partner who died in a car crash eighteen years ago; this was her last reminder of her partner.

My friend is devasted. She is complaining to the MOD and contacting our local BBC radio station. Even though she was 31, she did not deserve to die this way.

Is there anything else she can do? She is heartbroken.
 
I am so sorry your friend lost this pony in these tragic circumstances.

Just a quick question though - is it unusual for these huge helicopters to fly over where you are? We have the RAF practising on a regular basis here in both ridiculously fast, low flying jets and Chinooks but my horses are so used to them, they take no notice.
 
Something happened to a young grey horse in a field in West Buckland, where I keep my horses. The local RAF flew over extra low - something to do with conditions - the horse panicked and tore its stomach open
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Obviously died.

My horse, like Ravenwood's, takes no notice as he is used to them. There have been complaints in the paper about the planes, but the RAF come back saying they have to practice.

It is such a tragedy. Your poor friend and poor pony
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Thats awful poor penny. Condolences to your friend.

I was going to post something about this as we had too low flying army helicopters pass over our yard today and it spooked all of the horses. Luckily they were all ok.
 
Not that it will help your friend but she may be entitled to compensation.
Find out where they were from and request a meeting with the peson in charge, and take witness statements.
We find ours are well used to normal helicopters but even the most placid aren't keen on the chinooks going over them at low heights, it's the beating sound of the twin wings that seem to spook them.
Very remiss of the pilot to fly that low over ag land, they have lots of places like the sea and open moorland they can practice that over.
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Poor friend and pony
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That is awfull, RIP little horsey

Like Ravenswood, we get them usually 3 at a time coming over very low, very loud, sometimes all day and occationally at night. Ours are used to them now.
 
Poor pony - what a tragic thing to have happened. One day in May we had several RAF helicopters flying very low over our horses. By the time the sixth one came over, the horses were getting pretty spooked and we managed to catch them and get them in. My horses are used to a variety of planes and helicopters as we live near a heliport, but these were so low and were banking directly over the field, that even my chilled lot got agitated. I complained to the MOD and have pm'd you a copy of their reply including how to get compensation.
 
Also speak to your BHS area rep and get them involved as it was the BHS who made a big thing about low flying aircraft and horses......

Such a sad story and awful for the owner.... HUGS!
 
Thats awful, we had a really low flying one yesturday, didnt see it but heard it, also had one a few weeks ago when my instructor was lunging my pony, she only just got control of him in time as he spooked really bad, and otherwise would have been running around with two lunge reins trailing...

There should be warnings or something put up...
 
That is so sad, my thoughts go out to your poor friend, yet it makes you so mad at the same time, how many more times is this going to happen. I know the MOD have to fly and train so there is no easy answers here, hopefully something can be resolved or worked out to prevent it happening again.

so sorry
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This makes me despair, its known that low flying aircraft scare animals, they should have taken better care. I would take things further.
 
Thats awful. I live right beside an international airport and an RAF base.My horses are used to the air traffic - however they do get stupidly close sometimes. The MOD have a civilian liaison officer that deals with complaints such as these.
Poor girl, what a terrible way to lose a horse.
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How sad, your poor friend, what an awful way to lose an old friend.

We used to live close to an airfield which was used for practising and so lots of low flying helicoptors and chinooks. I remember 5 or 6 years ago a well known dealer nearby, Andy Brake, came off his horse when it got spooked and injured himself pretty badly, broken vertibrae and ribs. The Navy weren't very sympathetic to him at all and he didn't manage to get any compensation.
 
So sad
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I was riding a friends horse once (i was very novice) and a low flying helicopter came over, horse freaked, bolted round the school, bucked, thank god horse and me were ok. Instructor phoned the place where it had come from to complain as they are not meant to fly over large equestrian premisces i believe.
 
I`m really sorry to hear about this , its heartbreaking.

I have had cause to complain about low flying aircraft on a number of occasions most recently about a sea king helicopter that flew so low it frightened the crap out of one of my mares that was due to foal.
The mod`s attitude was " oh well we`ll put a compensation form in the post if need be " and basically said they can do what they like,apparently they can fly as low as 50`, then you get a letter appologising but at the same time putting you on a guilt trip as they explain the training they do in order to protect us joe public.
All complaints go on record maybe if we all complained for every incident that happened ( i know ive just called them Ba$*&^%`s and carried on with what i was doing many times ) maybe they would realise they were upsetting quite a lot of people and animals and do something about it.

Thoughts for your friend and her poor horse.
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What a sad tale, I'm so sorry for your friend. We live on the edge of Exmoor and get lots of low flying military aircraft. I have complained in the past about unscheduled flights and eventually got a reply saying they have to practice blah, blah... Just wish they'd do it out to sea. My horses are used to them now.
 
Its a sad tale, but unfortunately the RAF do have to practice. Putting a complaint in is all you can do.

Could it also be that they had to fly low, in our area the RAF does the rescues of divers from the quarries and from inland lakes and some rescues from the sea. Normaly the divers have a case of the bends and we are on a direct course from the biggest diving quarry to the nearest decompression chamber.
Weve had chinooks and seakings going over us just skimming the tree tops, if they go any higher they risk killing the diver onboard. My ponies are so used to it they dont even bother to have a look at it anymore.
We also get low flying jets.
 
i am so sorry to hear about this what a tragedy. i don't know what i would do if this happened to any of mine. i hope she can get somewhere by speaking to the MOD as that is not on and there surely is no need for them to fly that low.
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this is so so sad i am so sorry to read this. a chinook went over my boys head incredibly low some months ago when someone was trialling him for loan and it wasnt until it was above his ears (we all ducked as we were scared and vibrating) that he jumped forward about 5 strides and that was it, but i dread to think if someone wasnt on him what he might have done. its terrifying and i really feel.
 
I am so sorry to hear about this! I have to say this is my worst nightmare as we get low flying helicopters and aircraft all the time even though we are not near a base. Horses are OK with them 90% of the time, but it's the 10% that is going to get you! I have tried calling the MOD with no success whatsoever, they couldn't avoid us, they couldn't tell me when they would be flying, etc. Basically they said they have to do it and we have to live with it!
 
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