#Indian Air Force helicopter crash

[usafphantom2]

Spanish government approves purchase of US$ 7.5 billion of new C-295 aircraft and Eurofighter jets

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/17/2023 - 16:39in Military

This week, the Spanish government approved contracts for defense investments that include 16 C-295 aircraft and 25 new Eurofighter jets.

The Ministry of Defense plans to allocate 7 billion euros (about US$ 7.5 billion) to these programs and other smaller contracts. The emphasis of investments is on the Spanish Air and Space Force.

The contract for 16 C-295 aircraft was approved, of which 6 are intended for maritime patrolling and 10 for maritime surveillance. The contract is valued at 2.034 billion euros and is expected to be finalized by the end of 2023. The acquisition aims to replace lost capacities with the withdrawal of the last P-3 Orion.

With the treatment of this purchase, which involves the acquisition of 16 aircraft, Spain will be able to recover the military capabilities necessary to meet the country's objectives with NATO and to continue to guarantee the national commitments acquired within the Alliance.

A separate program involves the acquisition of 25 new Eurofighter jets to replace some F-18s at the Torrejón and Zaragoza bases. The program is estimated at 4.593 billion euros, between the years 2023 and 2035. The investment package also includes provisions for the 20 Eurofighter jets previously purchased in the Halcón I program. The spending limit has been authorized and additional approval is required.

Currently, the C.15M (Eurofighter) aircraft fleet is about to start the decommissioning process, scheduled for about 2030, so it is necessary to replace it.

To this will be added an initial logistics package and ML2 maintenance level and two high-fidelity simulation systems including its infrastructure.

An investment of 207.4 million euros is planned for the acquisition of laser designator pods for air combat systems in the next four years. Another 95 million euros are allocated to operational support for the aircraft of the Ministry of Defense and 20 million euros are reserved for spare parts for F-5 fighters.

Companies such as Indra, SAES and Tecnobit are expected to be involved in the C-295 program. ITP Aero is expected to contribute engines to the Eurofighter program, along with other companies such as GMV and CESA.

Tags: Military AviationC-295Ejército del Aire/Spain Air ForceEurofighter Typhoon

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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[vroooom2]

Happy Thxgivin Y'all

Craig Awww Yrrr You Rock Thxx 💖

An AI-enabled radio jamming system developed by Vanderbilt researchers and tested with soldiers from the 101stAASLTDIV is being deployed for training of NATO and NATO-partner units in Europe. The ADSR system is part of the USArmy Pathfinder program.

On the right to repair, we're glad Biden pushed the 📱💻 Fair Repair Act via an EO, backed by the Hackers' advocacy campaign.

Canada and France support our American Folks. Can Oxblood and Count Zero translate this podcast for Kingpin? His hardware hacking skills are needed in avionics.

Engineers are working to make future air travel safer. They've created risk-prediction models using two decades of U.S. accident and safety records following the work of a five-year, $10 million NASA grant.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.22 (after 1950)

1955 – A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster crashes into Hawaii's Waiʻanae Range, killing 66. 1960 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser. 1963 – The Beatles release their debut album Please Please Me. 1970 – Chicano residents in San Diego, California occupy a site under the Coronado Bridge, leading to the creation of Chicano Park. 1972 – The United States Congress sends the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification. 1972 – In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the United States Supreme Court decides that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives. 1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama, causes a dangerous reduction in cooling water levels. 1978 – Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope suspended between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1982 – NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3. 1988 – The United States Congress votes to override President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987. 1992 – USAir Flight 405 crashes shortly after takeoff from New York City's LaGuardia Airport, leading to a number of studies into the effect that ice has on aircraft. 1992 – Fall of communism in Albania: The Democratic Party of Albania wins a decisive majority in the parliamentary election. 1993 – The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path. 1995 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space. 1996 – NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on its 16th mission, STS-76. 1997 – Tara Lipinski, aged 14 years and nine months, becomes the youngest women's World Figure Skating Champion. 1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp reaches its closest approach to Earth at 1.315 AU.[34] 2004 – Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, two bodyguards, and nine civilian bystanders are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force Hellfire missiles. 2006 – Three Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days of captivity and the murder of their colleague from the U.S., Tom Fox. 2013 – At least 37 people are killed and 200 are injured after a fire destroys a camp containing Burmese refugees near Ban Mae, Thailand. 2016 – Three suicide bombers kill 32 people and injure 316 in the 2016 Brussels bombings at the airport and at the Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station. 2017 – A terrorist attack in London near the Houses of Parliament leaves four people dead and at least 20 injured. 2017 – Syrian civil war: Five hundred members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are airlifted south of the Euphrates by United States Air Force helicopters, beginning the Battle of Tabqa. 2019 – The Special Counsel investigation on the 2016 United States presidential election concludes when Robert Mueller submits his report to the United States Attorney General. 2019 – Two buses crashed in Kitampo, a town north of Ghana's capital Accra, killing at least 50 people. 2020 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the country's largest ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19. 2020 – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announces a national lockdown and the country's first ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19. 2021 – Ten people are killed in a mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado.

[dintentdata]

Mi-171 Helicopter Crash in Niger State: Dainik Bhaskar's Misleading Link to Indian Air Force

A Mi-171 helicopter belonging to the Nigerian Air Force recently crashed in Niger state. However, a report by Dainik Bhaskar misleadingly linked the incident to the Indian Air Force (IAF), causing confusion. Accurate reporting is essential to maintain the integrity of news and prevent misinformation from spreading.

[warningsine]

Three civilians were killed on Monday when a MIG-21 military aircraft crashed into a house in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

The Indian Air Force said in a statement that the plane had taken off for a a "routine operational training sortie" from a nearby base. 

"Soon thereafter, the pilot experienced an onboard emergency, following which he attempted to recover the aircraft as per existing procedures. Having failed to do so, he initiated an ejection, sustaining minor injuries in the process," the Air Force said. 

"The aircraft wreckage fell on a house in Bahlol Nagar in Hanumangarh District, unfortunately leading to the loss of three lives." 

The Air Force said an inquiry had been set up to ascertain the cause of the crash. 

Patchy safety record, India modernizing arsenal

MIG-21s have had a shaky history in India, although for decades they were the backbone of the country's Air Force. First acquired from the Soviet Union in 1963, several later variants were added to the fleet over the years.

However, India's continued reliance on the outdated technology is a point of contention for its aviators, with the model among the handful of planes downy the years that some dissatisfied crews have taken to nickname a "flying coffin" after multiple fatal crashes. 

Last July, two pilots were killed when their twin-seater MIG-21 trainer aircraft crashed near Barmer, also in Rajasthan. That was the sixth MiG-21 crash since Janauar 2021, with five pilots killed in all. 

India's military has also suffered several other recent fatal air accidents. 

Last week, an Indian-made army helicopter with three people on board crashed in the Jammu and Kashmir region.  

And two Indian fighter jets collided mid-air during routine exercises in January 2023, south of the Indian capital of New Delhi. One of the pilots died in the collision. That incident involved two far more modern planes, a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 and French-made Mirage 2000.

In January 2020, India's most senior military officer, then-Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat, was one of 13 people killed when a Russian-made military transport helicopter crashed en route to an air base.

India is trying to modernize its air force with a mixture of acquisitions from Russia and France, and also by trying to develop a domestic aviation industry of its own.

mk/msh (AFP, Reuters)

[trustednewstribune]

Officer faces sack for accidental shooting of IAF’s helicopter

The Mi-17V5 had crashed in the Budgam area shortly after take-off killing all six onboard and one civilian on the ground.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force’s General Court Martial (GCM) that probed the accidental shooting down of a Mi-17 V5 helicopter in February 2019, a day after the Balakot attack in Pakistan, has recommended the dismissal of a Group Captain. Sources said the GCM ordered the sacking of Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury, who was serving as Chief Operations Officer of the Srinagar Air Force Station at that point in time.

The probe determined that the attack helicopter was struck by the IAF’s surface-to-air missile when the chopper was on its way back to Srinagar on February 27, the day Indian and Pakistani air forces were engaged in a dogfight on the Line of Control.

The Mi-17V5 had crashed in the Budgam area shortly after take-off killing all six onboard and one civilian on the ground. The GCM’s decision is yet to be sent to the IAF chief for confirmation. “The verdict of GCM is subject to confirmation by the competent authority. Hence, the officer has not been dismissed from service,” a defence source said.

Sources said the IAF can act on the GCM’s recommendation only after a decision on a case relating to the incident by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Last month, the HC is understood to have allowed the GCM to pronounce its verdict while stating it must not be implemented till the court disposes of the case.

[new-haryanvi-ragni]

Indian Army chopper crash Update: All 5 onboard ALH helicopter dead, bodies recovered

Indian Army chopper crash Update: All 5 onboard ALH helicopter dead, bodies recovered

The India-made Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) made by HAL for the Indian Army and Indian Air Force crashed yesterday, bodies of all 5 Army personel onboard have been recovered.  source https://zeenews.india.com/aviation/indian-army-chopper-crash-update-all-5-onboard-alh-helicopter-dead-bodies-recovered-2525310.html

[harpianews]

Proud of him, will fulfill his dreams for our child: Lance Naikoo's wife

Proud of him, will fulfill his dreams for our child: Lance Naikoo’s wife

His younger brother Sumit Kumar lit the pyre at the Kanjeshwar Mahadev crematorium in Lambagaon town, about 15 km from his home village Thehedu. Vivek Kumar’s wife, Priyanka, dressed as a bride, raised the slogan “Mera Fauji Aamer Rahe” thrice at the crematorium, in which everyone was present. Army personnel and state police gave him a gun salute. Earlier, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur received…

[dailypioneer]

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika and 11 other people on board an Indian Air Force helicopter died in a crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, the Indian Air Force said.

"Gen Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was on a visit to Defence Services Staff College, Wellington (Nilgiri Hills) to address the faculty and student officers of the Staff Course today," it said.

"With deep regret, it has now been ascertained that Gen Bipin Rawat, Mrs Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons on board have died in the unfortunate accident," the IAF tweeted.

[usafphantom2]

Accident with Indian Navy MiG-29K on the coast of Goa

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 10/12/2022 - 12:52 in Aeronautical Accidents, Military

An Indian Navy MiG-29K fighter fell in still unknown circumstances in the Goa coast sea.

The aircraft crashed when it returned to Hansa naval base in Goa.

The Indian Navy reported on Twitter about the accident: "A 29K MiG in a routine outing over the Goa Sea developed a technical malfunction when returning to the base. The pilot ejected safely and was recovered in a rapid SAR operation. The pilot was reported in stable condition. An investigation committee was determined to investigate the cause of the accident.”

The Indian Navy is the only operator in the world of the MiG-29K fighter acquired from Russia along with Admiral Gorshkov renamed INS Vikramaditya in India.

The security history of the MiG-29Ks has not been very good. The force is now analyzing the acquisition of 25 to 26 foreign fighters for operations of the INS Vikrant aircraft carrier, recently presented by the Prime Minister in Kochi.

This was the fourth accident involving the MiG-29K since 2019.

In November 2020, a fighter pilot died after a MiG-29K accident, where one of the pilots was rescued shortly after the accident and another pilot had his body found 11 days later.

Another MiG 29K fell in the same year in February after being hit by birds. The pilots diverted the jet from a housing complex before ejecting, which attracted praise from India's Defense Minister Shripad Naik.

In November 2019, a MiG-29K jet crashed during training in a village next to the base in Goa. Both pilots ejected safely.

The MiG-29K is equipped with the Russian-made K-36D-3.5 ejector seat, one of the most sophisticated in the world. If the ejection levers are pulled, the pilot in the rear seat is ejected first, followed by the pilot in the front.

Tags: Aeronautical AccidentsMilitary AviationIndian NavyMiG-29K

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. It has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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homeMain PageEditorialsINFORMATIONeventsCooperateSpecialitiesadvertiseabout

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[maqsoodyamani]

ہندوستان کے پہلے چیف آف ڈیفنس اسٹاف جنرل بپن راوت اور ان کی اہلیہ سمیت ہیلی کاپٹرحادثہ میں13 افراد ہلاک:ہندوستانی فضائیہ

ہندوستان کے پہلے چیف آف ڈیفنس اسٹاف جنرل بپن راوت اور ان کی اہلیہ سمیت ہیلی کاپٹرحادثہ میں13 افراد ہلاک:ہندوستانی فضائیہ

ہندوستان کے پہلے چیف آف ڈیفنس اسٹاف جنرل بپن راوت اور ان کی اہلیہ سمیت ہیلی کاپٹرحادثہ میں13 افراد ہلاک:ہندوستانی فضائیہ   نیو دہلی،8دسمبر( ایجنسیز)   ہندوستان کے پہلے چیف آف ڈیفنس اسٹاف جنرل بپن راوت آج تمل ناڈو میں ایک فوجی ہیلی کاپٹر جوگر کر تباہ ہو گئے سوار تھے، جن کےساتھ مزیدسوار 13 افراد ہلاک ہو گئے۔ ایک شخص شدید جھلسنے کی وجہ سے زیر علاج ہے۔ جنرل راوت کے ساتھ سفر کرنے والی ان کی اہلیہ…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.19 (after 1930)

1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds. 1941 – World War II: HMS Greyhound and other escorts of convoy AS-12 sink Italian submarine Neghelli with all hands 64 kilometres (40 mi) northeast of Falkonera. 1942 – World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins. 1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, fewer than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation. 1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals. 1953 – Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth. 1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty 1960 – Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871 crashes near Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey, killing all 42 aboard. 1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest. 1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose"). 1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003. 1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity. 1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia. 1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced. 1986 – The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter unauthorized copying of the software they had written. 1988 – Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 crashes in Bayfield, Colorado, killing 19. 1990 – Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley in Indian-administered Kashmir due to an insurgency. 1991 – Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries. 1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations. 1995 – After being struck by lightning the crew of Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C are forced to ditch. All 18 aboard are later rescued. 1996 – The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. 1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city. 1999 – British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company, forming BAE Systems in November 1999. 2007 – Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast. 2007 – Four-man Team N2i, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1965 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance. 2012 – The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI. 2014 – A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and injures 38 others.

[merisarkar]

CDS General Bipin Rawat's helicopter crashes in Tamil Nadu

CDS General Bipin Rawat's helicopter crashes in Tamil Nadu #India #defence #defense #merisarkar #mygov #news #CDSRawat #Helicopter #Crash #BipinRawat #IndianArmy #Army #AirForce #IAF #IndianAirForce

General Bipin Rawat Helicopter Crash: In an extremely tragic incident, an Indian Air Force helicopter with some senior officers, including India’s highest military officer, the country’s first chief of defence staff, General Bipin Rawat, was onboard has crashed in the Nilgiri hills in the coonoor district of southern state of Tamil Nadu. A Russian made Mi-17 V5 helicopter of Indian Air Force,…

[defencestar]

India's top military officer CDS General Bipin Rawat's helicopter crashes

India's top military officer CDS General Bipin Rawat's helicopter crashes #India #defence #defense #army #nationalsecurity #strategy #news #defencenews #breaking #defencestar #CDSRawat #BipinRawat

IAF helicopter with India’s top military officer crashes In a major development, an Indian Air Force helicopter with some senior officers, including India’s highest military officer, the country’s first chief of defence staff, General Bipin Rawat, was onboard has crashed in the Nilgiri hills in the coonoor district of southern state of Tamil Nadu. A Russian made Mi-17 V5 helicopter of Indian Air…

[newspaperinpakistan]

Helicopter Crashes of Indian Army

An Indian Army helicopter crashed in occupied Kashmir.

According to the Indian Ministry of Defense, the pilot and co-pilot seriously injured in the accident and rush to a hospital. The accident happened in the Udhampur area of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Read More

[greatworldwar2]

• Hanna Reitsch

Hanna Reitsch was a German aviator and test pilot. Along with Melitta von Stauffenberg, she flight tested many of Germany's new aircraft during World War II and received many honors. She set more than 40 flight altitude records and women's endurance records in gliding and unpowered flight, before and after World War II.

Reitsch was born in Hirschberg, Silesia (today Jelenia Góra in Poland) on March 29th, 1912 to an upper-middle-class family. She was daughter of Dr. Wilhelm Willy Reitsch, who was ophthalmology clinic manager, and his wife Emy Helff-Hibler von Alpenheim, who was a member of the Catholic Austrian nobility. Hanna grew up with two siblings, her brother Kurt, a Frigate captain, and her younger sister Heidi. She began flight training in 1932 at the School of Gliding in Grunau. While a medical student in Berlin she enrolled in a German Air Mail amateur flying school for powered aircraft at Staaken, in a Klemm Kl 25. In 1933, Reitsch left medical school at the University of Kiel to become, at the invitation of Wolf Hirth, a full-time glider pilot/instructor at Hornberg in Baden-Württemberg. Reitsch contracted with the Ufa Film Company as a stunt pilot and set an unofficial endurance record for women of eleven hours and twenty minutes. In January 1934, she joined a South America expedition to study thermal conditions, along with Wolf Hirth, Peter Riedel and Heini Dittmar. While in Argentina, she became the first woman to earn the Silver C Badge, the 25th to do so among world glider pilots. In June 1934, Reitsch became a member of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS) and became a test pilot in 1935. Reitsch enrolled in the Civil Airways Training School in Stettin, where she flew a twin-engine on a cross country flight and aerobatics in a Focke-Wulf Fw 44. At the DFS she test flew transport and troop-carrying gliders, including the DFS 230 used at the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael.

In September 1937, Reitsch was posted to the Luftwaffe testing centre at Rechlin-Lärz Airfield by Ernst Udet. Her flying skill, desire for publicity, and photogenic qualities made her a star of Nazi propaganda. Physically she was petite in stature, very slender with blonde hair, blue eyes and a "ready smile". She appeared in Nazi propaganda throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s. Reitsch was the first female helicopter pilot and one of the few pilots to fly the Focke-Achgelis Fa 61, the first fully controllable helicopter, for which she received the Military Flying Medal. In 1938, during the three weeks of the International Automobile Exhibition in Berlin, she made daily flights of the Fa 61 helicopter inside the Deutschlandhalle. In September 1938, Reitsch flew the DFS Habicht in the Cleveland National Air Races. Reitsch was a test pilot on the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber and Dornier Do 17 light/fast bomber projects, for which she received the Iron Cross, Second Class, from Hitler on March 28th, 1941. Reitsch was asked to fly many of Germany's latest designs, among them the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet in 1942. A crash landing on her fifth Me 163 flight badly injured Reitsch; she spent five months in a hospital recovering. Reitsch received the Iron Cross First Class following the accident, one of only three women to do so.

In February 1943 after news of the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad she accepted an invitation from Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim to visit the Eastern Front. She spent three weeks visiting Luftwaffe units, flying a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch. On February 28th, 1944, she presented the idea of Operation Suicide to Hitler at Berchtesgaden, which "would require men who were ready to sacrifice themselves in the conviction that only by this means could their country be saved." Although Hitler "did not consider the war situation sufficiently serious to warrant them...and...this was not the right psychological moment", he gave his approval. The project was assigned to Gen. Günther Korten. There were about seventy volunteers who enrolled in the Suicide Group as pilots for the human glider-bomb. By April 1944, Reitsch and Heinz Kensche finished tests of the Me 328, carried aloft by a Dornier Do 217. By then, she was approached by SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, a founding member of the SS-Selbstopferkommando Leonidas (Leonidas Squadron). They adapted the V-1 flying bomb into the Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg including a two-seater and a single-seater with and without the mechanisms to land. The plan was never implemented operationally, "the decisive moment had been missed."

In her autobiography Fliegen, mein Leben Reitsch recalled that after two initial crashes with the Fi 103R she and Heinz Kensche took over tests of the prototype Fi 103R. She made several successful test flights before training the instructors. "Though an average pilot could fly the V1 without difficulty once it was in the air, to land it called for exceptional skill, in that it had a very high landing speed and, moreover, in training it was the glider model, without engine, that was usually employed." In October 1944, Reitsch claims she was shown a booklet by Peter Riedel which he'd obtained while in the German Embassy in Stockholm, concerning the gas chambers. She further claims that while believing it to be enemy propaganda, she agreed to inform Heinrich Himmler about it. Upon doing so, Himmler is said to have asked whether she believed it, and she replied, "No, of course not. But you must do something to counter it. You can't let them shoulder this onto Germany." "You are right," Himmler replied. During the last days of the war, Hitler dismissed Hermann Göring as head of the Luftwaffe and appointed Reitsch's lover, von Greim, to replace him. Von Greim and Reitsch flew from Gatow Airport into embattled Berlin to meet Hitler in the Führerbunker, arriving on April 26th, as the Red Army troops were already in the central area of Berlin. Reitsch and von Greim had flown from Rechlin–Lärz Airfield to Gatow Airfield in a Focke Wulf 190, escorted by twelve other Fw 190s from Jagdgeschwader 26 under the command of Hauptmann Hans Dortenmann. In Berlin, Reitsch landed a Fi 156 Storch on an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate. Hitler gave Reitsch two capsules of poison for herself and von Greim. She accepted the capsule.

During the evening of April 28th, Reitsch flew von Greim out of Berlin in an Arado Ar 96 from the same improvised airstrip. This was the last plane out of Berlin. Von Greim was ordered to get the Luftwaffe to attack the Soviet forces that had just reached Potsdamer Platz and to make sure Heinrich Himmler was punished for his treachery in making unauthorised contact with the Western Allies so as to surrender. Troops of the Soviet 3rd Shock Army, which was fighting its way through the Tiergarten from the north, tried to shoot the plane down fearing that Hitler was escaping in it, but it took off successfully. Reitsch was soon captured along with von Greim and the two were interviewed together by U.S. military intelligence officers. When asked about being ordered to leave the Führerbunker on April 28th, 1945, Reitsch and von Greim reportedly repeated the same answer: "It was the blackest day when we could not die at our Führer's side." Reitsch also said: "We should all kneel down in reverence and prayer before the altar of the Fatherland." When the interviewers asked what she meant by "Altar of the Fatherland" she answered, "Why, the Führer's bunker in Berlin ..." She was held for eighteen months. Von Greim killed himself on May 24th, 1945. Evacuated from Silesia ahead of the Soviet troops, Reitsch's family took refuge in Salzburg. During the night of May 3rd, 1945, after hearing a rumour that all refugees were to be taken back to their original homes in the Soviet occupation zone, Reitsch's father shot and killed her mother and sister and her sister's three children before killing himself.

After her release Reitsch settled in Frankfurt am Main. After the war, German citizens were barred from flying powered aircraft, but within a few years gliding was allowed, which she took up again. In 1952, Reitsch won a bronze medal in the World Gliding Championships in Spain; she was the first woman to compete. In 1955 she became German champion. She continued to break records, including the women's altitude record (6,848 m (22,467 ft)) in 1957 and her first diamond of the Gold-C badge. During the mid-1950s, Reitsch was interviewed on film and talked about her wartime flight tests of the Fa 61, Me 262 and Me 163. In 1959, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited Reitsch, who spoke fluent English, to start a gliding centre, and she flew with him over New Delhi. In 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy invited her to the White House. From 1962 to 1966, she lived in Ghana. The then Ghanaian President, Kwame Nkrumah invited Reitsch to Ghana after reading of her work in India. At Afienya she founded the first black African national gliding school, working closely with the government and the armed forces. The West German government supported her as technical adviser. Reitsch's attitudes to race underwent a change. "Earlier in my life, it would never have occurred to me to treat a black person as a friend or partner ..." She now experienced guilt at her earlier "presumptuousness and arrogance". She became close to Nkrumah. The details of their relationship are now unclear due to the destruction of documents, but some surviving letters are intimate in tone. In Ghana, some Africans were disturbed by the prominence of a person with Reitsch's past, but Shirley Graham Du Bois, a noted African-American writer who had emigrated to Ghana and was friendly towards Reitsch, agreed with Nkrumah that Reitsch was extremely naive politically. Throughout the 1970s, Reitsch broke gliding records in many categories, including the "Women's Out and Return World Record" twice, once in 1976 (715 km (444 mi)) and again, in 1979 (802 km (498 mi)), flying along the Appalachian Ridges in the United States. During this time, she also finished first in the women's section of the first world helicopter championships. Reitsch was interviewed and photographed several times in the 1970s, towards the end of her life, by Jewish-American photo-journalist Ron Laytner.

Reitsch died of a heart attack in Frankfurt at the age of 67, on August 24th, 1979. She had never married. She is buried in the Reitsch family grave in Salzburger Kommunalfriedhof. Former British test pilot and Royal Navy officer Eric Brown said he received a letter from Reitsch in early August 1979 in which she said, "It began in the bunker, there it shall end." Within weeks she was dead. Brown speculated that Reitsch had taken the cyanide capsule Hitler had given her in the bunker, and that she had taken it as part of a suicide pact with Greim. No autopsy was performed, or at least no such report is available.