A sad sight

A couple of days ago, we at Wolverine received some sad news... one of our other crews experienced a hard landing (also called 'balling up an aircraft' because the aircraft end up in a general spherical shape). Fortunately, nobody was hurt, even though the aircraft was destroyed. Looking at the wreckage of this aircraft, I believe more firmly than ever that God watches over children and fools.
I am currently down at Kandahar again, albeit just for the next two or three days, when I will return to my home away from home up at Wolverine. This morning, a MI-26,the largest production helicopter the world has ever seen, flew in to the airfield with the forward 2/3 of our helicopter slung underneath. She (the ruined Chinook) was a complete loss even before the recovery team cut her tail off. Once the accident investigation is complete, I will be free to post photos of the ... carcass... as she is sitting here at the airfield. It is quite interesting to view an aircraft with such a sense of sadness, as if the ol' Mudslinger (her name stenciled across the rear of the ramp) was actually alive. I guess mariners of old felt this way about their ships as well - it is hard to see them die.
the attached photo is actually from a site called aerospaceweb.org. The main difference between this photo and what I saw this morning is the paint job of the big Russian. Also, the Chinook slung under this -26 is complete, with the exception of the rotor blades, which are almost always removed for slingload operations. The scale of this aircraft is amazing, as the -26 literally dwarfs the Chinook!