Boeing Chinook (UK variants) Boeing Chinook (UK variants) The Boeing Chinook is a large, tandem rotor helicopter operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). A series of variants based on the United States Army's Boeing CH-47 Chinook, the RAF Chinook fleet is the largest outside the United States. RAF Chinooks have seen extensive service including fighting in the Falklands War, peace-keeping commitments in the Balkans, Northern Ireland and action in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Chinook aircraft, normally based at RAF Odiham, provides heavy-lift support and transport across all branches of the British armed forces, and is supported by the smaller, medium-lift helicopters
2011 Afghanistan Boeing Chinook shootdown Abad. Recovery of wreckage from the crash site lasted until 9 August 2011. A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed that eight of the movement's fighters had been killed in the assault on the compound. He said: "They wanted to attack our Mujahideen who were in a house, but our Mujahideen resisted and destroyed a helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade." In the afternoon of 6 August a flash flood swept through the area washing away parts of the wreckage. Early media reports suggested the army had been tardy to recover flight recorders from the downed Chinook, and, as a