Home»ALL PHOTOGRAPHS»AUSTRALIA»NSW- ACT,»MANNING VALLEY»Black Hawk Down, Hallidays Point Primary School 4-5th April 2014

On the evening of Friday 4th April 2014 an army Black Hawk helicopter 'JL 212' and crew of 4 was heading south having left Townsville bound for Canberra many hours earlier.
On passing the NSW Mid North Coast Hallidays Point coastal village of Diamond Beach, with a storm and lashing rain making conditions difficult for flying, the helicopter developed a serious instrumentation issue forcing the pilot to put the helicopter down immediately on Diamond Beach. This was not a viable place to remain so the pilot searched for a nearby safe landing place and found nearby Hallidays Point Primary School playing field on Google maps. They fired the chopper up again despite some level of risk due to warning instrumentation showing a problem and headed the short distance to the oval and landed safely.
The crew were able to spend the remainder of the rainy night in the school hall while awaiting backup mechanical support crew who were dispatched from Sydney by 6am next morning.
It was not long before villagers realized that they had a surprising if impromptu visitor in their midst and many people visited the school playing field during the day finding the crew very friendly and obliging while they patiently waited for mechanical repairs to the multi-million dollar machine.
By around 5pm that afternoon the 5th April 2014 the helicopter was pronounced safe to fly and lifted off and resumed its journey south.