[ShKAS]

A miracle that many on the ground weren't killed.

http://defense.aol.com/2012/03/23/apache-crash-video-goes-viral-but-helicopters-remain-critical/

 

[jjk308 In Memoriam RIP]

Would have been perfectly safe.... a hundred feet higher. I've been in investigations of much worse, and dumber, accidents, with very tragic outcomes, both rotary and fixed wing.
The bit about unmanned birds, however, is just thoughtless. They are less safe for anyone around them because lack of inertial clues for a remote pilot makes precision flying - which you need in the vicinity of terrain and bases - tough.

 

[Rooinek]

Actually it may have been perfectly safe 2,000 feet lower. I suspect the altitude is fairly high in Afghanistan and rotor overs do better at lower altitudes. What works just fine in FL will not work in Afghanistan.

Of course had they been hundred feet higher it would have worked as well.

 

[North Bender]

This was in Paktika province where the elevations are high. Our two main bases there, FOB Sharana in the west and FOB Orgun-E in the east, are both over 7,500-feet elevation. Neither of them get the snow shown in the video so this was probably higher up in the mountains.