We all know the mystery helicopter used in the raid to kill Osama bin Laden was damaged in its crash landing and all but obliterated by U.S. special operators. All that survived intact was the tail section which was draped, in pretty good shape, over a wall in bin Laden's compound. At least until Pakistani troops started moving it.
Here's an amusing series of pictures showing the tail's increasingly rough condition. The first pic, shown above shows the tail in its relatively ok condition hanging over the compound wall. From then on, things get a bit tougher for the tail. It finally ends up being nearly dragged through the streets of Abbottabad by a local tractor.
The tail about to be moved off the wall and flipped over:
Whoops, looks like that snapped off at least one additional rotor blade and may have damaged two others:
And yeah, those are some nice scuffs and possible dents to the stabilizer and its low-observable coatings:
I don't want to know what happened to it after it was loaded onto the back of this truck, (er, tractor). You can clearly see what's probably the tail's outline beneath the blanket. Glad its being treated like the sensitive piece of military gear that it is. (Yes, I know they're probably doing the best they can under the circumstances. Still, it sucks to see this thing damaged any more than it already was.)
