The Jerusalem Post Fails At Helicopters

Israeli media continues failing at military illustration photos, and this time, the JPost fails at helicopters.

A few weeks ago, an RAF helicopter had to make an emergency landing in the Great Rift Valley, on its way from Jordan to Cyprus.

A Black Hawk helicopter (file). Photo: Reuters
A Black Hawk helicopter (file). Photo: Reuters

JERUSALEM – A British military helicopter made an emergency landing on Sunday in the West Bank because of a “technical malfunction,” an IDF spokeswoman said.

There were no casualties in the incident on Sunday afternoon and IDF soldiers were “securing the scene,” she added.

Sky news website said the RAF helicopter had been en route from the Jordanian capital Amman to Cyprus when it was forced to land by engine failure.

The British Ministry of Defense described the landing as “precautionary” rather than an “emergency” but declined to elaborate.

The spokeswoman denied Sky’s further report that the aircraft had landed in an Israeli minefield, but would not say exactly where it touched ground.

“It made an emergency landing in the Jordan Valley as a result of technical malfunction,” the spokeswoman said.

Given that the RAF does not fly the American made Sikorsky UH-60 “Black Hawk”  in all its versions, this illustrative photo was an odd choice. Looking up the story on SkyNews, it becomes clear that this helicopter was actually a Boeing CH-47 “Chinook”, as the article by Sky states clearly:

The Chinook suffered an engine failure, sources say (file pic)
The Chinook suffered an engine failure, sources say (file pic)

An RAF Chinook helicopter has been forced to land near an Israeli minefield after engine failure, Sky sources say.

Sources said the aircraft was flying from Amman in Jordan to Cyprus and was forced to land close to the West Bank town of Jericho.

I didn’t think much of it, as photo editors regularly make mistakes in fields they have no clue about, especially in military illustrations. Yet today, the JPost failed again.

Due to the recent “storming” of Jews, some were left without power in Samaria. The Israel Electric Corporation had to airlift mobile generators to those localities without power, but due to adverse road conditions, they were airlifted by the IAF.

Apache attack helicopter Photo: Courtesy
Apache attack helicopter Photo: Courtesy

IAF copter delivers electric generators to West Bank settlements

The air force on Monday delivered much-needed generators to the West Bank settlements of Shiloh and Itamar.

In an unprecedented move, the air force on Monday delivered much-needed generators to the West Bank settlements of Shiloh and Itamar who lost power at the start of the storm on Thursday.

“The roads were still impassable. They were totally disconnected. They only way to bring them the generators was with a helicopter,” Israel Electric Corporation spokeswoman Iris Ben-Shahal said.

“It’s the first time the IAF has done something like this,” Ben-Shahal noted.

Binyamin Region Spokeswoman Tamar Asraf added, “We were happy to restore electricity to residents who had been without [it] for more than 90 hours.”

The stock photo is of the Boeing AH-64 “Apache”, not the actual helicopter that was used, the Sikorsky CH-53 “Sea Stallion”, called Yas’ur in Hebrew.

JPost’s use of stock photos of the wrong helicopter is even more dismaying as the case above was filmed by the IEC and posted on their Facebook page for some well-needed PR.

IAF CH-53

Even if we take into consideration copyright laws, though INN and NRG both have the image IEC posted, there is no shortage of Yas’ur stock photos at JPost, like this, this, this, and this.

This is but a symptom of the fast declining profession of journalism.

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