The Hind Heist - The Secret US Operation to Steal the Soviet's Top Helicopter 

"stole a Soviet helicopter" would be an awesome thing to have on your resume

Imagine being a Soviet soldier and just seeing your helicopter getting flown away by another helicopter

The Cold War was like a bunch of highschoolers pulling pranks on each other.

little known fact, Hind blades rotate opposite american helicopter blades, making them tricky to fly by american pilots until they get used to it

That's what happens when you leave sensitive equipment behind. The Libyan's should have destroyed the Hind on evacuation, that's hind sight now.

One can only imagine how furious the Soviets were with the Libyans.

Once again you have found another historical event that was completely unknown to me. This channel is the best, period. Well done!

After all this some private was like "can't we just fly it out"? and his sergeant says "you need to stop using common sense and just follow orders".

9:19 a dead bird is just falling through the sky

Nobody: The U.S government: *_I use the helicopter to steal the helicopter_*

No Hind left behind.

It is boxed & tucked away between the ark of the covenant and the Roswell UFO wreckage

Incredible! I was working in maintenance at KDHN airport in 1988. I was in charge of keeping the grass cut between all the runways. I got a radio call one day on my tractor that told me to cease and return to the equipment shed. A C-5a landed shortly after and parked on the furthest inactive apron. A large contingency of HEAVILY armed soldiers poured out and stationed up surrounding the C-5. Although it was not unusual to have C-5s, the intense armed security was incredibly odd. Fuel trucks attended the C-5 and refueled the plane. Soldiers filed back in an off they went. Everyone was like WTF?! Days later the word got around the field that inside the C-5 was a captured Russian helicopter. Till this very moment l never knew for sure if it was true, so l always kind of hesitated to tell the story. Now I'm pretty well certain that that was indeed this chopper. Cool. Thanks for posting.

I'm just upset it's not called " The hind heist in hindsight."

I used to work in a small country on the west coast of Africa, and their army had a handful of Hinds piloted by Ukrainians. Every now and then they’d do mock attack runs on our hangar. I’m telling you, watching two Hinds appear at tree top level, coming full speed in an attack formation... impressive. Rather terrifying too haha. They’re big machines but are surprisingly maneuverable.

*Mission Impossible heist theme song plays*

*U.S.A to Soviet Russia: As you said comrade, its not your helicopter, its our helicopter*

Who would win: Virgin Libya Or Chad Chad

Do you know what they call the Hangar where the Hind is stored . . . . . The Hind Quarters . lol .

The Hind is now in the same hangar as the Ark of the Covenant.

Actually, this Hind was used for many years as an OPFOR (enemy) helicopter at the Army JRTC in Ft. Polk, Louisiana. I was "attacked" by it while training there in 1993 - it is a very big, very loud impressive helicopter! The infantry were just told to hide from and don't bother trying to fire on it with anything less than a .50 cal.

Today we learned that don’t give your stuff to small rebel groups that are just going to leave it laying around everywhere

I’ll be back in 6 years when this gets recommended to me

"It's in a secret US govt warehouse, hanger 51 I believe" LOL

0:44 So advanced, it's even got a cockpit fan for the pilot?

Soldier of Fortune magazine actually offered $100,000 for an intact Hind and later upped the reward to $1,000,000.

2 years later the eastern bloc collapsed, Germany reunified and all the Hinds of the former east german army became available to the west.

Nothing like engaging in a little R&D: Ripoff & Duplicate.

As a former Chinook pilot, previously hangered right next to the 160th, I approve of this episode. Quite a mission!

I was a Captain at Ft Rucker in DCD when it got to Cairns. I was amazed at how big the transmission was.

The Hind was in storage in Hangar 18 located within Area 51, Groom Lake Nevada. My Platoon was aboard 4 CH-46 Sea Knight Helo's. We were ordered there for some specific training in Nov. 1988. We were treated very well by the personnel there and were allowed a brief tour of the Hangar and its' aircraft within. Very educational !!

I remember when a HIND almost wiped out the Wolverines.

USSR: *builds a higly-advanced helicopter, capable of both attack roles and cargo transport USA: *yoink

Semantics: If the helicopter was a legitimate spoils-of-war taken by the French and Chad forces, who then gave and sold (respectively) it to the US, then the US did not, as a matter of fact, steal it at all.

I remember in August of 1990, preparing to deploy to Desert Shield at Fort Hood Texas. A "D" model made some passes over the Barracks at low level to familiarize us with the sound it made and what it looked like.

In Hind sight, the soviets shouldn't have been Russian to sell their gear so easily

"We do not fear the Soviets... But we fear their helecopters". ~Afgan Fighter, late 70's~

"The 1980s were the height of the Cold War." Except for when the American and Soviet navies almost fought each other in 1962.

It is rumored that Homer Simpson's famous "Doh!" originated with Gorbachev when he learned of this incident.

Oh I love how he referred to Area 51 as hangar 51.

As a US Tanker serving in the early 90's, we feared and respected the power and capability of the Hind.

Wouldn't "Worlds fastest military helicopter" go to the Westland Lynx helicopter? It set a new world helicopter speed record of 249.1 mph (400.87 kph) over 20 years ago

Libya:Leaves highly advanced helicopter Us:Its free reelestate

Nobody: People that play GTA: THATS A SAVAGE!!!!

It's being flown around a us airbase in the southwest, just keep looking to the sky. It has a distinct sound compared with US helicopters.

Does anyone remember when the media used to call it "the flying tank?" Also, the fake Hind used in the "Rambo" movies. Ahh, the good old days. 😛

Interesting video but I thought that the official world speed record for a helicopter is 249 mph achieved by a Westland Lynx

I love hearing about these more obscure little events of recent history. Especially all these many covert operations and intelligence ops between the russians and americans.

To clear up some misconceptions...This was declassified years ago. The maker of the video didn`t expose any secrets. The aircraft sat for months in Chad in the exact spot where it took a round in one engine, rendering it unflyable. It wasn`t able to take off under the power of the remaining good engine and was abandoned by the pilots. It wasn`t stored anywhere, again it remained where it was damaged. The reason for recovering it wasn`t to study the technology (Russian technology in the 1980s wasn`t very advanced), but find out what it`s capabilities were. The photo at the 5:50 mark is not the "lifting test". The actual test was done with an old Sikorsky helicopter airframe weighted down to approximate the correct weight. The Chinook in that photo isn`t even a 160 SOAR aircraft. In 1990, the Hind was flown in broad daylight to several military installations (although its origin remained secret at that time).....no government "secret" storage facility.

I was a Marine Corps CH-53D pilot in ‘88. We never even heard a faint rumor of this. Zero mention in any classified message traffic. Very well kept secret.

I was a Cold War soldier during the 70's/80's and this chopper was something to fear. It's still a beast.

This pissed off the Soviets so much, that it's been nearly 30 years since they shared their tech with nations aligning with theirs.

I just knew the Nightstalkers would be involved when he started talking about how hard it was going to be to fly out! Those guys rock.

Libyan General: I think we're missing a helicopter, don't tell you know who.

CIA: how much money should we offer them CHAD: Yes

"hangar 51" ;)

Never realise how lagre the hind actually is untill in saw it beneath that chinook

09:19 Did anyone else pick up the bird knocked out of the sky by the C-5? You actually hear it hit the ground in the clip.

Kadaffi's worst mistake was picking a fight with Chad.

I love it when a plan comes together!

The 80s were a great time to be in US Army Aviation. I was stationed at Ft Campbell, home of TF160, flying CH47s during period this raid took place. The Hind in the story may be one of the ones that ended up at the Test Activity at Ft Rucker, AL.

I made this heist yesterday on GTA

They could’ve just called Pegasus 🤦‍♂️

As a passionate man about history of war, I acclaim Mark's work. As a french man, I acclaim his way of speaking, a pure pleasure to improve my oral comprehension with Mark's voice ^^

So the mission to steal it was in fact a recovery mission from an airfield under friendly control.

I love the old school fan to cool the pilot. LOL As an old man I miss the stability of the US/Soviet Union balance. Yes may sound crazy but M.A.D worked.

“Hit the bell icon” Mark, you do realize we all did just that ages ago do you not?

Back in 2000 I was in a British infantry company and was flown over to Georgia to take part in a multi-arm-nation exercise (Asciet 2000). I was astonished that a civi contractor loaned a Hip and a Hind as well as several soviet tracked and wheeled vehicles to use as Opfor. Worth the air miles to see!

This helicopter was at Biggs Army Airfield in the early/mid 1990's. It was amazing to see it fly over us during many of our FTX's. Very different sound. Very low pitch thump.

A friend of mine was the roadmaster on this raid. He spoke of it many years ago while he was showing me pics of training missions. This wasn't the craziest thing he was in on. Just one of many.

I was an AF reserve Intel officer when this occurred. I remember reading in message traffic that anyone needing information or had questions about the Hind to contact a certain number/agency; that one had been "acquired" from the Libyans in Chad and that it would be evaluated and information on it would be forthcoming.

I, oddly, just read about this three days ago. Thank you for the awesome content!

One of my favourite helicopters... Was lucky enough to be in Budapest this year for their national day celebrations (20th August) where they threw one of these all over the place over the Danube in the middle of the city.

Americans and Russians both screwed up. They shoulda anaylized that diving attack 🐦 bird at 9:18.

U.S crew as they tie it up and prepare to take off: "yoink"

Hands down the best history channel on RU-vid

Warthunder, when is America gonna get their premium hind?

I’ll bet when Gaddafi found out his hair straitened out.

This is why when a base is overrun and need be evacuating, people have always destroyed their planes/vehicles and weapons, the ones which they can't take with them.

These stories of operations that go off essentially completely without a hitch are extremely interesting. The "smoothness" and ease that comes with these stories is pretty cool. Other harrowing stories are interesting as well but it's always interesting to hear of operations that went off completely without a problem *or* any problems were solved expertly and no loss of life or limb occurred. I think generally I have the sense that something is going to go wrong, which is probably from previous stories and movies, so when things go completely right it feels novel

World speed record for a helicopter? Are we forgetting the Westland Lynx?

"A Hind D? Colonel, what's a Russian gunship doing here?"

On a side note, I like the birds in the background that keep falling from the sky, the one that got washed away by the chinook blades, and near the end when the C-5 was flying over, you see the bird drop.

I remember there was a reward offered in Soldier of Fortune magazine for anyone who could produce one. I think Robert K. Brown was the man in the article.

This story is almost exactly the premise of the tv show "Airwolf" from 1984. My mouth dropped open when I heard all the similaities. It was like hearing my favorite show as a kid was a true story. Wow. Thanks

I remember seeing the picture from the thumbnail on reddit a few days ago and hoping for a quality video on the topic. Thank you for the video Mr. Felton!

Reminds me of the soviets stealing and copying the US AM9 air to air missle. A Sabre fired a AM9 at a MIG-17 and instead of detonateing close to the MiG-17 it maulfunktiond, rammed the MiG-17 and got stuck in the fusulage. The terrified pilot flew home and the missle was flown to the soviet union and reverse engeneerd. And thats how the soviets got their Air-air missles.

Or the Hind ended up in an episode of "Firefly" 😉

When my brother was in the Army in the late 80s early 90s he told me about seeing a Hind used by the Op Force during a training exercise. I wonder if this was the one used.

The hind looks like a rather slow moving, cargo/troopship. But then it singlehandedly wipes an entire platoon.

Woah there, whatever speed record it held, the Westland lynx was the fastest production helicopter for about 2 decades 1980-2000 ish

It was examined by "Top Men." "TOP MEN."

There's a Hind Helicopter at the Russell Tank Museum in Illinois.

hangar 51. ha! that brought a chuckle. thanks. i was a c-5a loadmaster out of dover afb back in the 70s and loaded a chinook onto a c-5 at yokota, as well as an army fixed wing. fixed wing delivered to dothan/ft. rucker museum. chinook to philadelphia for upgrade. flew 100+ round trips to germany and beyond. then joined army in 80's and at rucker, thru the decades, transitioned to uh-1, uh-60, and lastly the ch-47. when stationed in cyprus, raf akrotiri the c-5 brought our tdy group and our blackhawks from our kaserne in germany. years later would see the occasional c-5 landings at balad air base, iraq while doing ch-47 maintenance test flights in the pattern. always nice to see and hear the big bird.

Pretty sure Lester was behind this heist

What an amazing beast the Hind is. Tough, runs fine without a "sterile" environment.

Always something new and interesting on Mark's channel. Thanks again for the content and the high quality production. The visual content is always so relevant be it WW2 B&W stills or colour film from later incidents, as here. - what an enormous amount of research you must do.

This channel is so underrated and interesting. Don’t ever stop man.

This is like oceans 11 but for the military.

Thank you for making and posting, what a tremendous video! Absolutely no ridiculous dramatic music or sound effects or annoying wanky visual cuts so often seen on other videos of this nature. That's why I enjoyed it; simple and informative, easy to understand narration, with great pictures and no repetitive information making it drag out to 30 minutes. Well done. By the way, Good On Ya USA.