Saw Gates on 60 minutes last night. He claimed the plan wasn't for a helo to land in the courtyard. How'd they miss the LZ that far?

My SWAG...they may not have fully explored the envelope of that modified bird, and the high walls of the compound trapped downwash maybe leading to an unexpected VRS.

Or maybe it just broke. I'm pretty confident in saying the pilots in question wouldn't have simply screwed the pooch...

Guess we now have the answer: loaded to absolute max weight for a given temp and it turned out to be hotter than planned, making it impossible to hover...

Sources: Navy SEALs Knew Bin Laden Mission Was One-Shot Deal - FoxNews.com

The fact they had to improvise so much is really testament to how good these guys are. Assuming the Fox News report is even close to accurate, almost nothing went according to plan, and they still got the job done. Incredible.

Really sorry the Pakis are so upset with us...

Agreed. Tier 1 operators are no mere ordinary warriors.

Wheew... I feel much better now.