Russian Ka-52 Alligator gunship crashed during a combat sortie

A two-seater Ka-52 Alligator gunship crashed during a combat sortie, but both pilots were rescued.

Russian propagandist confirmed on his influential Helicopterpilot channel the crash of a Ka-52 attack helicopter, adding that pilots successfully ejected from the aircraft and landed safely.

“What happened, the committee will figure out. Yes, the helicopter was lost. The crew is alive,” the prominent pro-Russian military channel said.

Some sources reported that the crash was probably caused by a technical problem.

It is no secret that Russian Ka-52 helicopters are suffering from a major vibration issue when heavily loaded with weapons. Severe imbalance in the rotating parts of Ka-52 leads to instabilities during flight making control difficult, if not impossible. Severe vibration can also affect avionics and navigation equipment.

The War Zone also noted that often described as being fitted with ejection seats, the Ka-52 actually doesn’t have true ejection seats, but instead, a crew extraction system, which doesn’t rely on rockets to punch the seats out of the cockpit, but instead to drag them out.

© 2023, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.