Top secret Russian-made helicopter spotted being flown by ‘secretive US unit’ in North Carolina

A TOP secret Russian-made helicopter has been spotted being flown by a “secretive US unit”.

A Mi-17 Hip-type helicopter made an emergency landing in a North Carolina field owned by farmer Dan Moore.

Shortly afterwards a dark grey Bell 407 also arrived carrying replacement parts.

It’s thought both helicopters may be part of a “shadowy US military aviation unit,” according to The Drive.

Moore, who is a member of the Civil Air Patrol, and has been a pilot for a number of years, said the helicopters landed in May but shared his story with the aviation journal The Air Facts this week.

"I received a call from my neighbor saying, 'Hey, did you know there is a helicopter in your front yard?'" Moore wrote. "Wait, what? A helicopter? In my yard? I was confused, but also primed and ready to return the favor when I figured out somebody had made an emergency landing at my farm."

"Living in North Carolina, there is a lot of military activity in the airspace around me... So my answer to my neighbor was, 'Huh? No. No idea what is going on. What kind of helicopter?'" he continued. "My neighbor, who is in the special forces at Ft. Bragg [a major US Army base in North Carolina] said, 'I don’t know. I’ve never seen one like it. Some big military thing.'"

It turned out the helicopter was a Mi-17-type painted in a tan and brown camouflage scheme.

Pictures and video taken by Moore show it had a black-painted section on at least the right-side of the fuselage behind the exhaust.

The images though don’t show any obvious markings to identify who the operator is.

According to The Drive, the helicopter was decked out with a number of military features, including a sensor ball turret under the right side of the cockpit, as well as supplemental armor panels on either side.

There was also a large particle separator fitted to the front of the helicopter’s two engine intakes.

The tail boom was covered in antennas, including a platter-type one typically associated with high-frequency satellite communications (SATCOM) systems, the report says.

HELICOPTER LANDS FOR EMERGENCY REPAIRS

Moore told his neighbour to give his phone number to the crew and a short while later got a call from the crew chief who told him the Mi-17 would need to stay on his property until it could be repaired.

"My answer?" Moore said. "At the barn there is a white truck. The keys are in it. Go into town to get what you need. In the barn there is a full machine shop with all the tooling and supplies. The shop is open, go get what tools you need. I’ll be there in two hours.”

The crew chief though didn’t take him up on his offer.

When Moore eventually returned to his farm he found the helicopter’s crew removing a hydraulic cooler, which apparently was the cause of the problem.

"I found the pilot and we chatted about what was going on. I explained that he’d landed at the single best place to put down he could have," Moore said. "He seemed pretty non-plussed till I explained that the pasture where he was sitting had power lines running through it till about a year before when I’d moved them to make the runway. And that all the other areas along his route of flight were either swamp or trees or houses. He turned a touch green when he realized what I was saying. He was in the only safe place he could put down.”

Moore and his son chatted with the crew for a bit longer and as they were about to leave, learned that spare parts were on the way.

A little while later the Bell 407 pitched up with the necessary spare parts.

According to The Drive, the Bell 407 was similar to a trio of others that were seen flying around Los Angeles in January.

The Bell’s crew unloaded its cargo and left relatively quickly.

By the next morning the Mi-17 was repaired and also set off for an unknown destination.

It isn’t known what organization the helicopters belong to or who was flying them.

'SECRETIVE' US ARMY UNIT

"These guys were all former military and they were doing some sort of REDACTED for REDACTED. It was all very hush hush," he said, adding that they told him they "were visiting from out of state."

The War Zone explored a number of possibilities as to who might own the Bell 407s that appeared over Los Angeles, saying it was likely they were owned by a highly "secretive" US Army unit known as the Aviation Technology Office (ATO), based at Felker Army Airfield, part of Fort Eustis, in Virginia.

The ATO was previously known as the Flight Concepts Division (FCD) which is said to have long standing ties to the CIA.