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What's the Safest Way to Travel Through Afghanistan?
July 16, 2009 9:38 AM
ABC's Karen Russo reports from Afghanistan:
As the red desert fades into the hazy distance, the lush green Helmand River Valley appears below. A river bends through the center of a village of mud huts, trees hugging its curves. The area is one of the most dangerous places on earth, but from the sky, it looks like a place to picnic.
In Afghanistan, helicopters are the safest way to travel; roads are often dotted with ied's (improvised explosive devices) and the lack of highways makes travel by road nearly impossible. But "safe" is a relative term here.
The Mi-17s, with their cavernous innards and wide-open rear door, often skim the surface just a few hundred feet off the ground. Pockets of hot air cause them to dip and lift, a motion similar to a roller coaster. A lead helicopter often radios warnings of upcoming electrical wires hidden behind the frequent rock formations of the rugged brown earth towards the Pakistan border. Men walking across vast open valleys (where are they going?) look upwards. Sheep cluster together when the helicopter approaches.
Flying at about 1,000 feet are the UH-1s or "Hueys." Originally built for commercial flights, they are best known from images of the Vietnam War with soldiers dangling their feet off the side. The higher altitudes provides cooler and more comfortable travel, but less detail of the land below. The vibration of a black hawk is sleep-inducing, even with flares blasting off the sides.
Floods, wells and uneven terraced farmland make it difficult for military landings and insertions, often slowing movement towards and away from the helicopter . Even worse, is landing in a “dust out” where the pilots and dismounts can’t even see the ground. On a recent embed, I was told we'd land in a massive cloud of dust. They weren't exaggerating. I had dirt in my ears for the following two days. I covered my camera in a plastic bag before jumping off the back - hoping I didn't do a face-plant or run into the rear propeller ("don't worry, it'll only hurt for a few seconds," one guy joked).
July 16, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (1)
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That is the most amusing thing of the day. Of course, there is absolutely no safe way to even enter the country, much less travel across it.
Anyone who thinks there is.....there's a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.....
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | Jul 16, 2009 4:06:26 PM
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