<p>Helicopters, the primary vehicles for aerial support in naval operations, are the subject of our study. As the helicopter navigates above the ship’s landing deck, the unsteady flows formed in this region will translate into fluctuating aerodynamic forces on the helicopter. Understanding these forces and their extreme nature is crucial for ensuring the safety and stability of helicopters during naval operations. However, it is observed that many studies overlook the extremes in wind fluctuations as a critical contributor to ship-helicopter operation safety. They mainly focused on the time-averaged parameters, such as mean velocity and turbulence intensity, to characterise the highly fluctuating air-wake flow. This study introduces a method to identify extreme air-wake-induced aerodynamic vertical forces, one possible extreme event that the aircraft may face as it approaches the landing deck. The vertical forces are quantified by calculating the vertical drag acting on the helicopter fuselage using the strip approach proposed by Stepniewski and Keys (Rotary-wing aerodynamics. Courier Corporation, New York, 1984). Example calculations are conducted using experimental air-wake data recorded without the influence of the rotor thrust (Setiawan et al in Ocean Eng 260:111931, 2022). On average, it is shown that the helicopter will face strong downward forces as it hovers above the ship’s landing deck. However, more importantly, there are several instances where the vertical drag acting on the fuselage reaches five times higher than the average value. This highlights the potential risks and the urgent need for quantifying extreme events related to ship -helicopter landing operations.</p>