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R44 crashshes into hangar 'video'


JAC

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Not sure if this has been posted before but interestng video to learn something from.

 

Click Here For Video

 

NTSB report

On August 5, 2004, at 1200 central daylight time, a Robinson R44, N7036J, piloted by a commercial pilot, was substantially damaged when the main rotor contacted an open hangar door during takeoff and the helicopter subsequently impacted the ground at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (SUS), Chesterfield, Missouri. The flight was being conducted under 14 CFR Part 91 and was not on a flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The pilot and 2 passengers reported no injuries. A third passenger reported minor injuries. The local flight was originating at the time of the accident.

 

In his written statement, the pilot reported that the flight was to be a local sightseeing flight for the 3 passengers. He added that the left side flight controls had been removed. The pilot stated that the helicopter was parked on the ramp approximately 35 feet from the hangar. He reported that the bi-fold hangar door was open and extended about 10 feet out over the ramp.

 

The pilot stated that after completing the normal start-up and pre-flight procedures, he established that the area was clear and picked up into a 6 - 8 foot hover. He reported that he began to move away from the hangar. He stated that as he did so the passenger in the left front seat turned to his right and "accidentally and inadvertently hit or bumped the counterweight portion of the cyclic as he turned."

 

The pilot stated that the helicopter drifted toward the open hangar door and before he could correct the drift the main rotor clipped the bottom edge of the door. He recalled: "I quickly maneuvered away from the hangar building and began to level the aircraft." The helicopter descended to the ramp. The subsequent hard landing caused the skids to collapse and the main rotor to sever the tail boom.

 

A ground witness to the accident submitted a video recording of the accident flight. Review of the recording revealed that after the helicopter lifted-off, it paused in a hover for a few seconds and then began to climb out, subsequently contacting the door. No drift toward the hangar building was observed prior to rotor blade contact with the door.

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that was a pretty violent crash, good thing no one seemed to be seriously hurt, the bird landed upright, and no post crash fire. Anyone else think that he was setting up to taxi a little too high regardless?

 

The pilots first audible response just after the crash is pretty priceless though "I apologize for that"

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Guest rookie101
:o :o :o It looked like it just blew up! Glade to see everyone walked away :unsure: Some scary stuff and their ears had to have been ringing from that sound of the rotor blades hitting the roof.
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midwest helicopters, i think that was deloreans school. i'm thinking about going there. kinda funny. the pilot was going a little to quick and didn't check out the area well enough preflight. or like someone else said he's inexperience and pulled a little to much collective going into taxi.

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I really glad you found this clip. It helps to see this sort of thing, helps to keep safety in mind. Thanks

 

Richard

 

http://heli-safety.com

 

 

I too am glad you found this. It was scary to see an amazing it turned out so well which I am happy for. It it home because due to parking issues we take off and land next to our hanger. Although we have strick policies on it and the doors are always closed and latched among other things. I don't think he was tring to hover taxi. It looks as if he is actually starting a max performance take off and didn't clear the area. Lesson learned. Brings up a good point, when I teach Max P's I stress to my students to clear the area, including above. I have heard of several acidents in EMS where they landed with a steep app. but hit wires on a Max P take off. Food for thought.

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Best quote: "Ride's over, huh?"

 

That is a scary but effective reminder to ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings. I'm glad no one was hurt and we're able to make little comments in jest.

 

I can't imagine how embarassed the CP must have been after the initial shock wore off.

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Wow that was really bad. Good thing everyone was ok.

One thing I don't like about UTUBE is that theywill let any moron post comments. Most of teh comments below the video sound like they came from some stupid pimple faced kid that knows nothing about flight.

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Hover taxi my ass-

My guess is Charlie was profiling for the video camera-

Bet they don't video much around there anymore.

Fella with the camera is lucky he didn't catch any shrapnel.

 

gft

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WOW...

 

a high taxi indeed.. seemed people were walking arounf the helicopter on start up too.. a bit close for comfort to begin with.. then the big event.. the camera man was truly luck .. where did the tail cone go? it just vanished.. or blasted into smithereens.. WOW....

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Man that low rotor horn is LOUD.

 

Later

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WOW...

 

a high taxi indeed.. seemed people were walking arounf the helicopter on start up too.. a bit close for comfort to begin with.. then the big event.. the camera man was truly luck .. where did the tail cone go? it just vanished.. or blasted into smithereens.. WOW....

 

Yeah high taxi is right. The first thing I noticed is that he picked it up to what looked like about a 6-8 foot hover, which made me wonder what he was doing. In an Astro, loaded with 3 passengers, I dunno, just for MAP it would have made sense to keep it down in the 3 foot range. I guess that's what you get for posing for the camera...

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The height of his hover could've been to talk to ground or tower, or to check for traffic where he was intending to go. I think he was clearly distracted from the obvious hazard, whether it was showing off or attempting to get the flight going. Whether or not they continue to allow video, I bet they don't crank so close to the hangar anymore.

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Anyone have any idea how to save that video to my computer? Theres always the chance it could be taken down from youtube for whatever reason, and I'd like to have that one saved.
Copy and paste the youtube URL <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqA5YpgRZPc>

into the box at http://www.keepvid.com/, click "download", and then right click on "download link" and save it to your disk. If you need a stand-alone FLV player, a quick perusal of Google should do the trick http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+flv+player Alternatively, you could use VideoLanClient which is a very good, cross platform, open source, and free media file player http://www.videolan.org/

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Most places don't have helicopters operating that close to buildings and people. I know its easy to say what you would have done after the fact, but honestly, I don't feel comfortable operating that close to buildings and people. I would bring it to a few feet hover and drift away from that area. What if he had a tail rotor failure or something else that caused him to lose control? Could have been a lot worse.

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and from now on I will not go as close to the hanger as I have been, even though our doors don't open like that, it is a mistake I am happy not make, and will thus learn from his, It looks like the tailcone went through the window of the building you can kinda see a metal lump sticking out of a window to the left of a door as they walk away. man that is scary...

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