Ever wonder how pilots manage to stay on course without road signs or anything? Well, sometimes they don’t. And just like regular, land-locked drivers, sometimes they have to stop and ask for directions.
As seen in a YouTube video shared by The Aviationist, a fully-loaded Kazakhstani helicopter recently plopped itself down on in the middle of a snowy Kazakhstan highway, so that they could get out and ask a passing truck driver for directions. In the video, one of the passengers can be seen exiting the helicopter and running over to the parked truck, like he’s just making a neighborly request. After gesticulating wildly over the right directions with the driver, the military passenger gets back in to the chopper and they fly off.
According to The Aviationist, the Kazakhstan Ministry of Defense said that the surprise landing was part of a training exercise to teach their helicopter crews to find their way if they get lost in a storm, or their equipment becomes unreliable. Among the suggested techniques was “human survey.” So, just asking for directions.
The exercise was deemed a success.