10 Most Terrifying Moments From HBO's Chernobyl
9. The Helicopters
The helicopter scene is one of the first pieces of evidence that even Legasov isn’t yet aware of the scale of the problem, and brings Shcherbina and the rest up to speed with how bad things are.
Craig Mazin, the showrunner, spoke about the helicopter scene being one of the few historical inaccuracies, in that it’s shown in the series much sooner than it actually happened. Along with Legasov’s team of scientists being crunched down into a single character of Emily Watson’s Ulana Khomyuk, it’s one of the only deliberate changes Mazin made for dramatic effect.
Considering how true and in depth the rest of the series is, you can excuse Mazin this change, and it definitely works for the pacing of the show.
The helicopters are brought in to drop sand on the burning reactor, to put out the nuclear fire. Legasov warns them not to get too close, but this message is passed through Shcherbina and another KGB agent, and the severity of his message is lost.
As one of the helicopters flies too close to the smoke and crashes, we all realise that Chernobyl is a much bigger problem than anyone is aware of.