Mystery Russian-made helicopter landing in NC community causes a stir; deployed troops were ‘not terrorists’

TROY, N.C. (WNCN) — Residents and officials in a North Carolina county are saying no terrorists were involved when a Russian-made helicopter with several troops aboard landed and stayed overnight in Montgomery County this week.

The incident in the Eldorado community was first reported Monday night when a gray MI-17 helicopter variant set down in a field just after 7 p.m. near the intersection of N.C. 109 and Old Thayer Mill Road, about six miles northwest of Troy.

The MI-171E aircraft, based on a Soviet-designed Russian-made military transport and gunship helicopter, then unloaded at least seven troops with backpacks who vanished into nearby woods, according to various reports.

“It was a big miscommunication,” said Lee Hudson, who owns property nearby. “Everything was aboveboard. They are not terrorists.”

The troops, who landed at the edge of the Uwharrie National Forest, left the next day on the helicopter whose departure was caught on video by at least one person.

The Montgomery County Sheriff said Thursday there was a “lack of communication” in the incident.

“The U.S. Army conducted a training exercise in the Eldorado Community of Montgomery County earlier this week using a non-US military helicopter,” Montgomery County Sheriff Pete Herron said in an email to CBS 17 News. “The Army acknowledged an unintentional lack of communication on their end.”

Stephan Marshall, who raises cows nearby at The Farm at Uwharrie, drove by the field and saw the helicopter after it landed.

“It got blew [sic] out of the water quite a bit,” he said about the hubbub surrounding the troops and helicopter.

The helicopter, which had no graphics and only gray paint, landed less than 75 miles from Fort Liberty. CBS 17 reached out to one element of U.S. Special Forces at Fort Liberty, who said the helicopter and troops were not linked to an upcoming exercise called Robin Sage.

The U.S. Special Forces have the special war-like test Robin Sage for Green Beret candidates planned to start August 23 . The Fort Liberty operation, in its 50th year, features “realistic opposing forces and guerrilla freedom fighters” and includes much of North Carolina, including Montgomery County.

Officials with Robin Sage referred CBS 17 to other U.S. Army Special Operations Forces, who have since been contacted.

Hudson said before the helicopter landed, the U.S. Army contacted a nearby store, whose former owner also owned the field where it landed.

But, the store was recently sold to new owners — and a person answering the store phone gave the go-ahead for the helicopter landing, he said. However, the actual owner of the field was not contacted in advance, according to Hudson.

“The previous owners of the store who still own the land didn’t know what was going on,” Hudson said. “The Army did what they were supposed to do. The Army thought they had permission.”

Hudson said in the past, there wouldn’t have been a problem.

“Before, it was supposed to be there or the landowners knew,” Hudson said. “So it didn’t stir anything up.”

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