What Is happening With This Helicopter? [Image Cache]

Those don’t seem to be flares or artificial lighting or a Photoshop job. And it’s not a teleporting sequence from a sci-fi movie either. It’s the Kopps-Etchells Effect. It’s how it happens, in line with Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger:

Basically this is a result of static electricity created by friction as materials of dissimilar material strike against each other. For that reason titanium/nickel blades moving during the air and dirt. It occurs on the ground in addition, but you don’t usually see it as much unless the aircraft is landing or setting out. The commonest time is when fuel is being pumped. When large tankers are being fueled they need to be grounded to forestall static electricity from discharging and creating explosions.

Originally, this effect didn’t have any name, but the always awesome Michael Yon -former US Army, now war photographer-found one: The Kopps-Etchells effect. He named it after American Corporal Benjamin Kopp and British Corporal Joseph Etchells, two soldiers killed in action inside the Helmand Province, Afghanistan, where these pictures were taken.

Etchells last wish was to be cremated and launched over his childhood favorite park inside a firework. It sort of feels like a fitting name for a stunning effect in the midst of such an unpleasant war. [ Michael Lyon ]

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This post is tagged: artificial lighting, command sergeant major, helmand province afghanistan, soldiers killed in action, static electricity