My old office was near Strangeways m and one day we saw a drone very conspicuously hovering high over the prison yard. Turns out that drones smuggling in contraband has become a major problem in the last few years.
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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Today someone would just watch a YouTube video and then steal the helicopter. Nobody wants to put the work in anymore.
The GTA generation
Final words: "I'll just raw dog a helicopter. How hard can it be?"
This just made me think... people always complain about missing out on a future that promised them flying cars. Turns out that we have flying cars now. We just call them "helicopters" and it turns out they're hard as fuck to operate.
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Scene opens: a still of a helicopter with blades sheared off after colliding with an electrical pole, sparks are spraying from the severed power lines. You can see the passenger seat, there's a man in a jumpsuit peeling a nectarine painted like a grenade, looking worried and shouting. The camera pans to the pilot's seat with a scrappy brunette a determined, but concerned look on her face. Cue record scratch.
Brunette: "Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here."
Screen fades to black. End scene.
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Here's a another tale of a helicopter-related prison break:
During the 1970s, Ireland (specifically ~~Northern Ireland~~ northern province of Ulster) entered a period of conflict known as 'The Troubles.' The conflict was mostly concentrated in the north but occasionally would spill into the rest of Ireland. One notable (and devastating) example was the dual car bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in 1973. But the funniest episode of 'The Troubles' would also happen in the Republic that same year.
Because of the violence in the north, the Irish government took steps to stop activity related to Republican (not the American GOP kind) paramilitaries such as the Provisional IRA and their smaller and more openly communist rival INLA. This was in spite of a sympathetic population. The party Fine Gael came to power with an anti-crime promise (sound familiar?) and another promise to put a stop to all paramilitary activity in the country.
On the morning of Halloween, 1973, the IRA hijacked a helicopter and told its pilot to fly towards a prison on the outskirts of Dublin called Mountjoy. The helicopter landed in the prison yard and, despite the commotion, were able to secure the IRA members that were intended for the escape. This led to a large a manhunt involving both the police and the military. Two of the men were recaptured not long after but one of them wouldn't be recaptured until 1977 - a whole 5 years later!
Fun fact: People abbreviate it "heli" or "copter", when in fact the two parts of the word are "helico" and "pter". (Think: helical or pterodactyl)
Try pronouncing it helico-pter, and pronounce the P and make it rhyme with "tare" as in pterodactyl. You'll sound like you have a French accent, or something.
Very fun fact, so much so I wanted to know more.
originates from the Greek helix (ἕλιξ), genitive helikos (ἕλῐκος), "helix, spiral, whirl, convolution"[1] and pteron (πτερόν) "wing"
Imagine saying helicopad and quadpter!
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we used to be a hijinks society
antics is how you resist fascism
Never underestimate the power of shenanigans
Leftists these days just don't have the whimsy of old.
it's legit a problem. some of the leftists i meet have no interest in engaging in silliness when silliness is what got a lot of us involved in the first place
The last attempted helicopter prison escape in the Wikipedia list is from 2020
Hijinks are harder now than they were in the '80s but not extinct; though even in the '80s success rarely lasted more than a few months for helicopter escapees
Why was the prison keeping him on the roof instead of inside the prison where he couldn't escape? 🤔
Really good at climbing.
How can you post this and not let us know if they got away or not?
Michel Vaujour had 28 years to serve for attempted murder and armed robbery; this was his fourth escape attempt. He made his way to the roof by threatening guards with a fake pistol and nectarines painted as grenades. On top of the jail he was picked up by his wife Nadine, who had taken helicopter pilot lessons especially for the escape. They landed at a nearby football pitch and fled in a waiting car.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_helicopter_prison_escapes
The couple’s hideout was right back in Paris. Bold or foolish, they stayed in the city where they had just staged a daring escape. Three months later, they were caught not opening a charming coffee shop but robbing a bank—again. In the shootout that followed, Michel took a bullet to the head but survived. He was soon back in prison, his sixth escape attempt with a new accomplice, Jamila, ending in failure.
You took he meme right out of my fingers. How the fuck you do get a bullet to the head and then try the same shit again? How the fuck fhose assholes manage to get girlfriends that do all that shit for them?
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Bro didn't know when to quit lol
Could have gone and became an action film actor at that point
"List of helicopter prison escapes" is a new addition to my favorite Wikipedia articles
I only knew that Wikipedia list existed due to a reference in XKCD
Want to share some articles from your favorites list? I need some entries in my newly created one. ^^
It's more of a mental list but here's a few off the top of my head.
Hiroo Onoda - Japanese soldier who continued fighting 29 years after WW2
Nadine faced charges for her role in the jailbreak. Nevertheless, their bond remained unbroken. When asked about her extraordinary actions, Nadine famously said, “I would do it all over again.”
Nadine Vaujour, after serving her sentence, largely disappeared from the public eye. Her life since her involvement in the prison break has been shrouded in mystery, with little information about her current whereabouts. Some reports suggest she sought to live a quieter, more private life, far removed from the notoriety that the helicopter escape had brought her. The lack of public appearances and media engagement indicates that she may have distanced herself from her past.
You know normally I think the argument that people are less imaginative/creative than they used to be in the past is BS.
After reading the sentence "He made his way to the roof by threatening guards with a fake pistol and nectarines painted as grenades." I think maybe that's true
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That's love
With that kind of effort Id say they earned it.
In Mexico it is not illegal to attempt or succeed in escaping prison. You will not get additional charges or time for attempting an escape or succeeding and then getting caught.
It is written into their constitution that the desire for freedom is a human right.
Land of the free 🇲🇽🇲🇽
Same in Germany I think. But you will get extra charges if anything or anyone is damaged in your attempt
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No almost needed, that's dope.
I wish someone would go through the effort of learning how to pilot a helicopter just so I can be free...
Love takes us to strange places and makes us to do even stranger things...
She's a keeper!
I'm not mad at it.
I remember the first time I heard of helicopter prison breaks. What is so incredible is how common they actually where and the countermeasures developed against them.
Love knows no bounds?
....oh OK, very nice Mr...what did you said your name was?
Oh, one last question before we give you a pilots license, have you or will you have in the future a husband or wife or close relatively living in captivity at the moment?
Is the captivity legal or illegal, please explain.
Have had to purchase a rope ladder or just copious amounts of rope from the home Depot recently?
I love what you did there, but to be biblically accurate, they asked zero safety / security questions in the 80s.
"Have you ever used drugs, like cocaine?"
"No."
"Oh, would you like some?"
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