How RAF pilot's quick thinking after total engine failure earned him the Air Force Cross

[Music] I have the citation here for the Air Force Cross do you mind reading some of it out the fact that this was a one in a million emergency which occurred night over difficult terrain and on an instructional sorty makes Wallace's actions in Saving his aircraft and crew truly remarkable that evening's mission was to teach yaf how to fly tactically so preparing him for a deployment to Afghanistan what that was was night flying at 150 ft tactical climbs so climbing as fast as we can up to 2,000 ft before descending back down to low level just so he can uh experience mixing up the two regimes we were conducting some confined aial Landings and uh the last one actually we um we departed from a very small space just enough space for the Merlin and during the takeoff and and departure and transition we we experienced a a very loud bang in the helicopter the aircraft yard which is a rotation through the V galaxis 20 to 30° um all of which I was still looking down at the computer so I didn't have a clear what was going on um of course through my head was what on Earth's that um I was quite shocked I didn't think it was catastrophic I'd assumed that ya would maybe hit a tree with a rotor blades although serious helicopters can normally fly um if you just knocked a foot off um at least a short distance which would have been enough to put it down in the field um so I looked up said I've got it I've got it took the controls off your half I knew it was critical instantly because we have a low altitude we have the low speed and dark night and we were over trees so um I reckoned immediately if we're going to land it would be a cedit landing it got quiet cuz the engines starting to shut down and the RoR blades was slowing down um and as soon as the RoR blades stop then it's game over with a helicopter cuz you've got seconds when the uh blades start reducing speed I rushed away from the ramp and tried to find me a Cru seat uh because I'm not safe I'm only um secured with the belts to the seating of the helicopter and uh it would not um it will not make me safe if we make a hard Landing luckily i' spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Brits before um and it would only take a lucky bullet to potentially incapacitate the aircraft so it's something would actually train for a heck of a lot um so I think the simulator training took over if I'm perfectly honest I don't recall having any of these thoughts although the things I said and did happened other thoughts I'm just no no no I thought this is to the end I knew from flying in the terrain for 3 or 4 years that there was a large clearing a large open field build in the sort of 2:00 area I couldn't see it cuz it was across the cockpit but I also knew that I had no choice but to go for it cuz the land in the trees probably would have been fatal so I stood the aircraft almost on its tail um which for's Air Forces air to go up through the bottom of the rotor blades and spin them back up to speed like a sycamore I started a a hard turn we turned for about 60° and then during the turn I it kind of dawned on me that this was catastrophic failure and we weren't get to be flying away so I called brace brace brace to the crew I didn't manage to buggle up safely and I just took my brace position and uh I expected a very hard Landing eventually a crash actually that's what my expectations was I still couldn't quite believe that all three engines had failed and we got zero talk cuz that shouldn't be possible in a helicopter at that point we were probably about 30t from the ground still turning so I leveled the aircraft uh and plunked it down in the field sat tight here and just waiting for the impact uh and it didn't it didn't happen so we actually landed without me noticing him it was so it's such a soft soft landing on a soft field so I I didn't manage to recognize the landing all of a sudden we were standing still in the middle of of the night I remember it being about - 10 -5° uh and I had to call my boss he was the only person I could think of to call at that point um that was quite a Serial conversation cuz I didn't know what had happened and all I could tell him was I was in a field everyone was okay but obviously he got a barrage of questions that I just yeah had no answers for we all just went home I don't think anyone slept a wink cuz clearly we didn't know what had happened whether we'd done something wrong or yeah what could have caused it uh got home probably about 4:00 in the morning my wife was fast asleep so I just left as sleep um and just lay there for the rest of the night it was very strange we met the day after to talk this through and defuse and debrief uh and I um uh without thinking I I just talked to Ben and think thank you uh for saving my life last night it was uh quite quite emotional actually when I training Junior Pilots I try to kind of instill just a little bit of that caution I don't want to scare them of course cuz is as we said a one in a million thing but just to get people thinking that the one in a million event does actually happen what he did that night uh was uh was uh magnificent and real estate me and the crew and and the helicopter I'm quite sure about that if it wasn't for his Pilot skills maybe I wouldn't be sitting here today thanks for watching for more from forces news like And subscribe to our Channel

Channel: Forces News

Views: 183,783

Keywords: Forces News, Forces TV, British Armed Forces, British, Forces, military, serving, military personnel, Ministry of Defence, British defence, British military, RAF, Royal Air Force, Merlin, helicopter, helicopter pilot, Denmark, Air Force Cross, Flight Lieutenant Ben Wallis, Ben Wallis, AFC, aircraft, news

Id: QAmH9n_VtDc

Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 10 2024