"Suddenly Silence" • a yeshiva student who spotted the helicopter - recalls

21-year-old yeshiva student, who searched during last night after the military helicopter which crashed, first spotted the remains of the helicopter, and consequently the helicopter itself.

Yaakov, a student of the Bnei Ram yeshiva, told B'Chadrei Charedim of the events.

"At 00:55 I was in the yeshiva, and I heard the routine sound of a passing helicopter in the area, suddenly I heard the motor go on and off again, twice. When I heard the helicopter continue, I relaxed.

"A few moments passed, and I heard the engine shut down again, and since then silence. Immediately I went out along with some other boys, we looked everywhere and did not see anything. We hoped nothing had happened, and returned to the yeshiva."

"Minutes later, we heard two helicopters, and saw that they were flying low and looking for something. Immediately we realized that a disaster happened, and I called the police to report what I heard earlier. As time passed, more and more extensive scans forces came to look for the crashed helicopter.

"Together with other yeshiva students, we enlisted for the searches, and we scanned areas from what was asked of us. Towards 4:00 most of the boys were back in yeshiva, and I was left with a few individuals.

"At 4:50 I was with several men and soldiers at the layers, and decided to enter the wheat field across the road.

"After about 5 minutes of walking whilst using the lighting of my mobile phone, I noticed a section of relatively large piece with no wheat, and I immediately raised the suspicion that this was the area where the helicopter crashed. I called one of the soldiers with a flashlight, and we found some of the propeller helicopter which shaved the wheat and that helped us locate it.

"The soldier reported the front command room on locating, and we moved a few hundred meters, where we saw the helicopter nearly complete, except for a few pieces which broke during the crash.

"I went and saw the bodies of the late soldiers, and immediately large forces came to evacuate us, and we returned to the yeshiva."

This is what it sounded like: "Ball of fire fell from heaven"

"I'm driving here on the road near Revadim, it will sound a little strange, but a ball of fire fell into the field here," a citizen said last night at 00:55 to the emergency center 100 of the Israel Police Southern District.

So that was the first report of the crash. Following the call, large forces were searching the area and found a few hours later in the same field the remains of the helicopter.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!