PDA

View Full Version : Door fell off Merlin at Salthill Airshow, 3 injured.


k3k3
24th Jun 2007, 21:13
www.rte.ie/news/2007/0624/airshow.html

hobie
24th Jun 2007, 21:46
and then it was 'Army' ..... :confused:

Murphy's law .... that's for sure .... :(

http://www.tyronetimes.co.uk/latest-irish-news?articleid=2978213

themightyimp
24th Jun 2007, 21:47
My sister and brother-in-law were there and saw it. Hopefully, not too nasty.

whaey
24th Jun 2007, 21:48
footage:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0624/9news_av.html?2262184,null,230

corsair
24th Jun 2007, 22:24
I was there about 100 feet away. It was the emergency door? on the starboard sliding door. Someone said they saw the crew chief try to stop it falling.
The Tyrone news is a bit wrong. It wasn't hovering, it was departing. I didn't see it hit anyone but on the news the video seemed to show that one man was clipped by it as it landed. He hopped up immediately and checked the state of the kid in the orange top lying nearby. I saw her dive to the ground, she wasn't hit. I suspect that the injuries are more related to diving for cover than impact although the man hit by the door might have some pain tonight. All of the injured were in fact standing up while being treated. It could have being a lot worse, a few seconds earlier and it would have hit people crowded on the prom. The beach was relatively uncrowded compared to earlier. The Thunderbirds had just finished their display and people were going home. As I left there were several disconsolate RAF types helping the police with their enquiries.
Here's the video.
http://www.rte.ie/news/9news/
I, of course had a perfectly good camera in my hand but failed to take a single shot.

Jackonicko
24th Jun 2007, 23:14
Cos nothing's ever fallen off a Chinook at a public air show. That main gear was a figment of Abingdon's imagination.....

NutLoose
24th Jun 2007, 23:22
I remember one of the first Chinooks we recieved lost the port hatch over Southampton..........

The Puma that lost its Bubble window, eight foot strop and Ladder over a town...... the Ladder ended upright in some old dears lawn, whilst the strop took out a coal bunker...

Also the puma that lost its door in Norway sadly killing the crew...


I do hope everyone is ok. but it does happen sadly :(

Tigs2
25th Jun 2007, 01:14
nutloose
Puma's don't have bubble windows or inflight ladders!, and what was the door loss in Norway?? Are you thinking of a different aircraft type perhaps??

Two's in
25th Jun 2007, 01:30
A Royal Navy Lynx lost the cabin door near the Kenyan coast some years ago, which took out the tail rotor and tragically resulted in the deaths of all nine POB. Point being that losing anything from a helicopter in flight is anything but trivial.

Tigs2
25th Jun 2007, 01:43
Twos in

Sorry who is your 'point being' directed at? I was asking for clarification of details. Who has posted on here suggesting that anything is 'trivial'?

The Helpful Stacker
25th Jun 2007, 06:04
Cos nothing's ever fallen off a Chinook at a public air show. That main gear was a figment of Abingdon's imagination.....

I don't believe it fell of in-flight Jacko and neither was it 'the main gear' (it was a castoring rear wheel, the main gear are the big fellas towards the front) but this isn't really the place to 'score' points off each other. The fact that something like this has happened to one of the newest a/c in our inventory shows it could happen to anyone.

Glad to see no one is seriously injured.

Talking Radalt
25th Jun 2007, 06:16
neither was it 'the main gear' (it was a castoring rear wheel, the main gear are the big fellas towards the front)
Minor detail but wokka wheels are all the same so the fronts are no more "main" than the rears.

Tiger_mate
25th Jun 2007, 06:29
nutloose
Puma's don't have bubble windows or inflight ladders!, and what was the door loss in Norway?? Are you thinking of a different aircraft type perhaps??

Tigs, I think that he is referring to the bubble window underneath the rear of the fuselage, whose loss along with the 8' strop is quite pheasable. I would have doubted that the maintenance ladder would have fallen but clearly it may have done. This would have been before the 'bits box' was a permanent feature and when the jammer was not required on a daily basis.

I have not heard this story before but did hear about the load pole departing in the days before it was strapped to the aircraft.

There are sadly many incidents of emergency doors falling after the general public have has had access to yellow and black levers, and it usually concludes with crew members in deep quano. This being despite the real offender placing levers back into their rightfull position. Morale is to check the pins, but I have no idea if that is even possible on the Merlin hatch, which gives the likelihood that there will be no public access to military helicopters. This is an understandable loss to the genuinely interested public who respect keepng their dinkies off 'controls'.

jayteeto
25th Jun 2007, 06:53
Tigs 2, you showeth your young years my child!! Not THAT long ago, the Puma didn't have a jammer fitted, except when it was in NI. It had a lovely bubble window at the back and the ladder went into some rails on the top. It was of no use whatsoever as it was always covered in oil (and crew kit)....

Dundiggin'
25th Jun 2007, 07:04
Despite it having bugger all to do with the thread...a Puma Crew (Tiger Tiger) had placed all the role equipment and various other items on the ladder stowage down at the back of the cabin where the ladder is stowed. This was pre-RWR and M147 kit when we had a big round window in the rear panel. Apparently, they flew into some 'turbulence' and the whole shebang fell through the window onto the ground underneath. The strop destroyed the balcony of an 'old dear's' house. Fortunately she was half deaf so she wasn't too shocked! A bunch of flowers and the TV coverage did it for her!
Yes a starboard Puma door fell off inflight in Norway in the 70's killing all three crew.

The Helpful Stacker
25th Jun 2007, 07:09
Minor detail but wokka wheels are all the same so the fronts are no more "main" than the rears.

Minor correction, no they're not.

The rear gear struts have a single wheel each side, one side castoring one side steerable. The forward gear has twin wheels on each side, fixed, non-castoring and significantly heavier, hence my description as 'main gear'.

HEDP
25th Jun 2007, 07:28
Don't go messin' with them there 'sliders, seems like they don't know their own strength...........



'All with that tongue firmly in cheek:)

wokkameister
25th Jun 2007, 10:39
Bit Jumpy Jacko.

Surely even a Merlin apologist like yourself wouldnt come out swinging at another type without any facts....oh no, your a journo!

WM

Tigs2
25th Jun 2007, 11:29
Dundiggin'
Thanks for the clarification. I remember only to well the rear bubble window in the Puma prior to jammer, Maws and everything else strapped in, but never heard of that incident and was thinking of another incident concerning a Sea King. Thanks.

Razor61
25th Jun 2007, 12:49
Usual replies then. Why not get back on topic of a door falling off a Merlin HC3 rather than :mad: about yapping about a Chinook incident that happened ages ago?
I Can't view the Irish footage, is it the same as Sky News?
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1272024,.html

London Mil
25th Jun 2007, 13:22
I wonder if the Americans will have rumbled our Dubya 'removal-from-office' plan? :eek:

Pontius Navigator
25th Jun 2007, 17:29
It couldn't have been a Merlin. It was an Army helicopter 'cause the BBC said so this evening and the BBC is always right.:}

St Johns Wort
25th Jun 2007, 17:55
Its a blessing that no one was seriously hurt in this freak accident.

PTT
25th Jun 2007, 19:59
A freaking miracle if you ask me...

:E

Ed Winchester
25th Jun 2007, 20:48
Scary biscuits. Must have freaked out the spectators. :eek:

serf
25th Jun 2007, 21:33
Was it a Navy Army helicopter or an RAF Army helicopter?

Monkey Madness
25th Jun 2007, 21:39
Cos nothing's ever fallen off a Chinook at a public air show. That main gear was a figment of Abingdon's imagination.....


One hell of an imagination too..... one could say almost photographic, thanks to Fantaman that is!

Two's in
26th Jun 2007, 00:28
Fame indeed for the hapless crew as this story is now being shown on the local TV news in the States.

Pontius Navigator
26th Jun 2007, 07:40
No, no, Junglie, it weren't us, the BBC said so.

The Helpful Stacker
26th Jun 2007, 07:55
Aye it was an Army one, just like all those Army Wessex, Puma and Chinook helicopters that flew in and out of R850 in the bad old days.

RUCAWO
26th Jun 2007, 10:37
Spangles Kaplinsky yesterday said it was an army helicopter, hovering over the crowd in Galoway :ugh: so lots of accurate reporting there .
I was about twenty five yards from where it landed and was taking photos as it flew over ,looking at the pics the door appears sealed in the first couple and in the last the bottom can be seen to be seperating from the frame ,this is when I stopped shooting.Very lucky that it came down like a leaf and the guy it hit took the force across his back.

airborne_artist
26th Jun 2007, 10:43
Don't forget that there's two Armies - the Royal Army (like the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force), and the ordinary Army (sometimes called the Regular Army). Perhaps that's where the confusion lies :E

Wader2
26th Jun 2007, 14:07
this is when I stopped shooting.

Shame.

The difference between a momento and a pension.

GasFitter
27th Jun 2007, 07:57
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6237568.stm

Not Long Here
27th Jun 2007, 16:35
Story has even made the TV1 News (with video) here in NZ. Still featured after Americas Cup though :}

TEEEJ
27th Jun 2007, 22:38
Some images and eyewitness accounts

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=71732

Straight Up Again
28th Jun 2007, 03:27
Lucky man, I know those doors aren't the heaviest of items, but they could still do some damage.

I know of an emergency window exit being lost from a 101 (the one forward of the sliding door), was a navy variant, and decided to leave the aircraft somewhere over Somerset. Never did find it, some farmer probably has the worlds most expensive shed window now. Gave the guy sitting in the instructors seat a shock as the window next to him left the aircraft.

FlyingV
28th Jun 2007, 16:30
Initial AAIU report suggests a member of the public may have tampered with the helicopter.

Digital video and camera evidence confirmed that the emergency egress door-locking handle was in the unlocked position as the helicopter commenced its lift-off.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0628/galway.html

Razor61
28th Jun 2007, 16:34
This was my initial thought too.
Seeing a video of the Merlin being clambered all over by the Public, someone might have had a fiddle and thus causing it to come detached.
If the report is right then surely this will now have a rule come into affect...

airborne_artist
28th Jun 2007, 16:53
You would hope that the crew would do an even more thorough pre-flight walk-around after allowing the great-unwashed to touch the cab.

hobie
28th Jun 2007, 17:38
AAIU Prelim. report link .....

http://www.aaiu.ie/AAIUviewitem.asp?id=9408&lang=ENG&loc=1652

Faithless
29th Jun 2007, 08:11
Deffo not an Army Helicopter as they are ALL in sandy places :\ Only ones here in Blighty are U/S ones being serviced to replace those in Sandy places.:(
Moral of story "We need more Copters" Mr Brown bum.:hmm: