Videofact: Helicopter With Tourists Almost Crashed Into Drone At LIDBEER Festival

The UAV was literally a few centimeters from the blades of the helicopter.

The accident occurred in Lida last Saturday – there was a large festival, LIDBEER, kp.by writes. The photographer was taking photographs of the views near the Lida Castle using an unmanned quadrocopter with a video camera. The captured images show how a Mi-2 helicopter with tourists on board flies directly towards the drone. By a miracle, the helicopter did not bring the drone down – it was in a few centimeters from the rotating blades.

– It's all right, the drone is alive, there's not a single scratch on it. That’s how it was: the helicopter was flying, and the drone sensors determined the airflow as an obstacle and it flew around the helicopter. Everything is fine, the drone is alive, – the author explained later in his video message.

Obviously, the pilot of the helicopter just did not notice the drone in the air. Experts say that, most likely, the helicopter would not suffer from the collision – the blades can resist such loads easily, and even can touch the ground during the rotation – which once happened during the air show at Baravoye. However, being a passenger of a helicopter, which knocks down an object with a blade in the air, is not a most pleasant thing.

The Mi-2 helicopter belongs to the Minsk DOSAAF club and is based at the Lipki airfield near Minsk. The helicopter is 33 years old.

Last year, eyewitnesses captured on video a similar Mi-2 helicopter with tourists, which nearly crash-landed during the festival. Fortunately, no one was hurt.