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

I have the appointment here for the Air Force Cross. Would you mind reading a little? The fact that this was a one-in-a-million emergency that occurred at night over difficult terrain and on a training sortie makes Wallace's actions to save his plane and its crew ring true. What was notable about that night's mission was teaching Yaf how to fly tactically, preparing him for a deployment to Afghanistan. What it was was a night flight at 150 feet of tactical climbs, so we climbed as fast as we could to 2000 feet before descending back to a low level. so you can experience the mix of the two regimes, we were doing some confined air landings and the last one, actually, we started from a very small space, enough space for the Merlin and during takeoff, departure and transition, we experienced a hit very strong in the helicopter in the aircraft yard, which is a rotation through galaxy V of 20 to 30 °, all of which I was still looking at the computer, so I was not clear what was happening, of course. my head was what on Earth that um I was pretty surprised I didn't think it was catastrophic I figured maybe you'd hit a tree with the rotor blades, although serious helicopters can usually fly um if you just knocked yourself off a foot um at least a distance short that would have been enough to leave him on the field um, so I looked up I said I got it, I got it, I took the controls off your half.

I knew it was critical instantly because we have a low level. altitude, we have low speed and a dark night and we were over trees, so um, I immediately calculated that if we were going to land, it would be a credit landing, it went silent because the

engine

s started to shut down and the RoR blades were decelerating, um. and as soon as the RoR blades stop, it's game over with a helicopter because you have seconds when the blades start to slow down. I ran away from the ramp and tried to find myself a Cru seat, because I'm not sure.

I'm just belted into the helicopter seat and uh, it won't make me safe if we make a crash landing. Fortunately, I spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan with the British before um and it would only take one lucky bullet to potentially incapacitate the plane, so it's something that I would really train a ton of, so I think the simulator training was done. post. If I'm completely honest, I don't remember having any of these thoughts. the things I said and did happened other thoughts Just no, no, I thought this was it until the end.

I knew, after flying in the terrain for 3 or 4 years, that there was a big clearing, a big open field built in a kind of 2:00 Area. I couldn't see it because it was on the other side of the cabin, but I also knew I had no choice but to try because the dirt between the trees would probably have been fatal, so I left the plane almost on its tail. um, what's the reason Air Force air goes up the bottom of the rotor blades and spins them up to speed like a banana? I started a sharp turn, we turned about 60° and then during the turn I realized This was a catastrophic

failure

and we weren't going to fly, so I called the crew.

I didn't make the flight safely and simply took my support position and expected a very hard landing and eventually a crash. In fact, those were my expectations. I still couldn't believe that all three

engine

s had failed and we didn't have any conversations because that shouldn't be possible in a helicopter at that point we were probably about 30 tonnes off the ground and it was still spinning so I leveled off. the plane, uh, and he dropped it in the field, it sat still here and just waited for the impact, uh, and it didn't, it didn't happen, so we landed without me noticing, so it was a soft, smooth landing on soft ground. field, so I didn't manage to recognize the landing, suddenly we were stopped in the middle of the night.

I remember it was about - 10 -5° uh and I had to call my boss, he was the only person I could think of to call at the time, um, that was quite a serial conversation because I didn't know what had happened and all I could tell him was that he was in a field and everyone was fine, but he obviously got a barrage of questions that just Yeah, I didn't have answers because we all went home. I don't think anyone slept a wink because clearly we didn't know what had happened, if we had done something wrong or, yes, what could have caused it.

I got home probably around 4:00:00. 00 in the morning my wife was fast asleep so I just left while she was sleeping and stayed there for the rest of the night. It was very strange, we met the next day to talk about this, calm down and inform, uh, and I, um, uh, without

thinking

. I just talked to Ben and I thought, "Thank you for saving my life last night." It was quite emotional. In fact, when I coach young drivers, I try to instill in them a little bit of that caution that I don't want to scare them away from.

Of course, because like we said, it's a one in a million thing, but just to make people think that the one in a million event really happens, what he did that night was magnificent and set me, the crew and the helicopter. I'm pretty sure of that, if it weren't for his

pilot

ing skills, maybe I wouldn't be sitting here today. Thank you for staying tuned for more news from

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