In the Dark of the Night Part 1

Something Spooky in the Air

By Steven R. Oberst

Calavatria Bridge Buenos Aires - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Strange things can happen in the dark of the night. Maybe that is why most helicopter pilots I knew did not like to fly at night. I guess I liked it because it was something different from a normal daytime mission in more ways than just the lack of ambient light. Flying at night meant changing your normal daily schedule. It also meant learning how to navigate and fly without the visual cues pilots are accustomed to using. This made a routine flight maneuver at night a little more intense than the same maneuver in the daytime. You never know what you will encounter in the dark of the night. Here are three night flights with unusual encounters:

I will never forget my last helicopter night flight. It took place in the Florida panhandle on a dark summer night in 1984. This flight was a special operations training mission. I was onboard as the flight evaluator, so I did not sit at the controls, but instead I sat in a jump seat between and behind the two pilots. This check-ride was a simulated combat mission. The objective was the nighttime insertion and recovery of special ops people (appropriately nicknamed “spooks”) behind enemy lines. The flight crew’s job was to locate a remote landing zone (LZ) in the special operations training area and insert a team of three spooks. This area of Florida was heavily wooded with mostly long needle pines. It was hard to navigate there in daylight, so the darkness added to the challenge. Someone in Operations must have been a rock fan, because all of the LZs were named for 80’s rock bands. After inserting the spooks at LZ KISS, the flight crew was to proceed back and refuel behind a C-130. Then they were to loiter until the scheduled rendezvous time and proceed to LZ QUEEN. Meanwhile, the spooks would be doing their thing, simulate blowing something up, and egress to LZ QUEEN for a recovery pick-up. 

It was a hot, cloudy and humid night with thunderstorms to our north, but not in our immediate flight area. The mission briefing, pre-flight and departure all went well. This crew was very professional and it showed. We took off around midnight. Navigating in the dark while flying at low level is challenging and intense. Using night vision goggles, the co-pilot’s task was to identify terrain features in order to keep the pilot on course. The crew successfully found LZ KISS and the spooks rappelled down to the ground and disappeared in the darkness. 

The crew then navigated directly to the C-130 and executed a flawless refueling. It was not until we were flying to LZ QUEEN for the pick-up that the crew encountered its first big challenge. As we left the C-130, the lightning in the thunderstorms 60 miles north started sending flashes of light across the sky that would momentarily shut down the night vision goggles. This was playing havoc with the crew’s efforts to navigate low level to LZ QUEEN. On special operations missions, timing is critical. There was a ten minute window for the pick-up and it took the crew an additional 20 minutes to finally find LZ QUEEN. 

There was no radio contact with our special ops spooks on the ground. If the helicopter was not at QUEEN by 0200 hours, the spooks were to proceed to the alternate LZ, code name STYX. It was 0230 hours and we needed to be at STYX by 0330 hours. We arrived at STYX on time, but there was no visual contact with the spooks. We landed in a nearby clearing and waited with engines running. We could not wait long due to fuel remaining. Suddenly all three spooks were seen running into the clearing. It was only when they were safely on board that we realized something was wrong. “What’s that smell?” asked the pilot from the cockpit.

“Smells like skunk,” I said. Sure enough, while making their way from QUEEN to STYX, the spooks had a close encounter with an angry skunk. All three got sprayed, but the lead guy got the worst of it. Soon the entire crew, myself included, were gasping for air. 

Needless to say, the primary mission now was to get back to base as quickly as possible. It was weeks before the smell dissipated to an acceptable level in that helicopter. To this day, every time I drive by a dead skunk in the road, the smell reminds me of this ‘spooky’ encounter in the Florida woods. 

Foot Bridge Tibet - photo by JoAnn Sturman