Military Aircraft Land On Farms After Encountering Fog

The locals in Gruta in northern Poland must have wondered what in the world was happening as six helicopters landed on a farm earlier this week. But when they realized the aircraft were American and not an invasion force, they went out to take photos with the aircraft.

A total of 12 aircraft had encountered heavy fog while returning from exercises in Lithuania, according to a report in the New York Daily News. In Gruta, five Black Hawks and a Chinook set down in a rapeseed field and reportedly asked for directions. TVN24 television reported that a local resident said that the Americans "came over and asked where they had landed. They wanted to know the name of the village."

Polish army spokesman Lt. Col. Artyr Golawski told the Associated Press that six additional helos landed in nearby Nowa Weil. The 12 aircraft had been participating in the Saber Junction training exercise in Lithuania, and were returning to their temporary base at Miroslaweic, Poland.

According to a report in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, a U.S. military spokesman said the aircrews were not "lost," but had landed as a safety precaution because of the deteriorating weather ... a standard safety procedure. He said they neither needed or asked for directions.

The exercises in the region are part of a NATO response to the Russian annexation of territory in nearby Ukraine. Village leader Halina Kowalkowska was quoted as saying "thank God it was the Americans."

(Image from file)

FMI: www.nato.int