The Australian Transport Security Bureau (ATSB) has detailed a pilot’s miraculous escape after their helicopter crashed and burst into flames final month.
A Eurocopter AS350 (registration unknown), which was conducting agricultural spraying operations close to Holbrook, NSW, on 3 September, hit a wire with its skids and misplaced management, crashing into the bottom and catching hearth; regardless of this, the pilot was in a position to get clear with solely minor burns.
In line with the transport security watchdog’s incidence transient, the pilot had recognized the wires in a pre-flight hazard reconnaissance and their location was programmed into the helicopter’s GPS, which was additionally outfitted with a wire detection warning system.
“As soon as spraying operations had commenced, the pilot reported that they have been specializing in the spray in addition to the inventory within the neighbouring property which was on the finish of their run. This resulted in them shedding sight of the already recognized wires within the spraying run overshoot space,” the ATSB stated.
“Shortly after the allotting had been accomplished, the pilot entered the neighbouring paddock and noticed the wires. Nonetheless, with little time to reply, the helicopter’s skids struck a wire leading to harm to the tail rotor.
“The helicopter then started vibrating violently and rotated to the left, coming into a number of 360-degree turns earlier than it collided with terrain, rolled onto its proper facet and caught hearth.”
The helicopter was destroyed by the hearth. In its transient, the ATSB wrote that the pilot had been distracted by different close by considerations.
“Regardless of the hazard evaluation and the techniques in place to warn in regards to the wires, on this incidence the distraction of the inventory within the neighbouring paddocks diverted the pilot’s consideration leading to them shedding sight of the wires,” the report learn.
“Analysis by the ATSB has proven that 63 per cent of pilots [in 180 wirestrike accidents] have been conscious of the place of the wire earlier than they struck it.
“Focusing consideration on non‑operational duties or specializing in operational duties on the flawed time can have an effect on pilots’ hazard avoidance, detection and response instances, and all pilots, regardless of the extent of expertise, can get distracted.”
The ATSB in 2011 launched an academic booklet, Wirestrikes involving identified wires: A manageable aerial agriculture hazard (AR-2011-028), containing particulars of a number of accidents, classes discovered and avoidance methods.
