Air Ambulance door loss in flight ?

[Coconutty]

Apol's if this is old news, but searching for "Air Ambulance EC135 door falls off in flght" didn't bring back any results....

Apparantly when you operate the front cockpit door jettison lever,
deliberately or otherwise, it pulls the retaining pins out from the door hinges.

If you then pull the lever back up it DOESN'T push the pins back in again, and if you keep flying the door falls off ! :eek:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d129/coconut11/FrontDoorRelease.jpg

- Anyone know more about this one ?
( A fairly recent occurrence I'm led to believe )

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d129/coconut11/Coconutty.jpg

[jayteeto]

If we jettison a door, it is always replaced by an engineer. When I do a check A, I always check that the door is secure and visible pins. Touch wood it doesn't happen to me tonight!! but it seems a bit silly to lose a door after you 'test' the jettison..........

[Letsby Avenue]

We spotted that one before we took delivery and insisted that they are tell tale wire locked...

[K48]

Ooh la la.. All sounds a bit dodgy to me.... here lies a fiddly latch obsession that worries in a Renault-Clio-bonnet-latch kind of way... KISS is the engineering moto that comes to mind.... Keep it simple.. st{+_?. :8

[spidi]

this one happened in germany 2001. on a night rescue in the alps they lost a sliding door when they wanted to close it. winch operator fell out of the
helicopter into his standing strap. no one injured...

http://www.bfu-web.de/nn_41542/DE/Publikationen/Bulletins/2001/Bulletin01-2001,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/Bulletin01-2001.pdf

www.slv.dk/Dokumenter/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-5279/245-GSAC-F-2004-107.pdf (http://www.slv.dk/Dokumenter/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-5279/245-GSAC-F-2004-107.pdf)

[Paradism]

If anybody wishes to have more detailed information, you can phone a query to SIDD at the CAA. They will be happy to run a query against the MOR database. I've done it in the past and a very useful service it is too.

[nodrama]

The first post was correct. An EC135 did lose a door in flight last week. The statement that if the handle is pulled and then put back, the pins do not relocate by that action, is also correct. The pins have to be physically put back into postion by hand (little covers in the door frame have to be removed to do this).

You'll have to wait for the MOR I'm afraid.


An EC155 lost a sliding door in Hong Kong back in 2003/4. It struck the aircraft, causing the a/c to crash into the harbour with fatalities. I think it was the German Border Guard that also had a 155 door loss incident. They got away with it though.

It was suspected that this was caused by incorrect rigging of the door attachment and locking mechanism. Eurocopter issued several ASBs in the following months to check the rigging of the doors. They also incorporated 2 modifications to 'beef' up the locking mechanisms.

[aeromys]

We spotted that one before we took delivery and insisted that they are tell tale wire locked...

Make sure the Engineers run the lockwire over the plastic cover on the handle mechanism and not under it, as the wire can't be visually checked if the wire locking is done first and then the plastic cover fitted over the top.

[Coconutty]

nodrama,

Thanks for confirming what I'd heard :ok:

While waiting for the MOR report ....

This appears to have been an inadvertent operation of the jettison lever,
after which the aircraft continued in flight and the door fell off - I heard a speed of 120 kts mentioned.... :ooh:

Begs a couple more questions - assuming the lever was wire locked as suggested, how easy / difficult is it to operate ? - Never having tried one I would imagine that it had to be a fairly positive action, to prevent inadvertent / accidental operation.

Training - did the person in the front left seat who operated the lever know that this action pulls the hinge pins out ,and that they are not be pushed back in when the lever is raised again, and was anything declared at the time to the pilot ?

There isn't AFAIK, a caption to indicate front door open / part open etc, so is there an emergency procedure / what is the emergency procedure if the lever is inadvertently operated in flight - Land immediately / Land as soon as practicable ? ?

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d129/coconut11/Coconutty.jpg

[skadi]

I know these kind of jettison handles from the BO 105, they are easy to operate and there are no captions either in the 105 nor the 135.
In the 105 I always briefed the passengers on the left seat to use these red handles only in case of emergency and even DONT TOUCH THEM!
But once one :mad::mad: used the lever after landing instead of the normal handles :ugh::ugh:

skadi

[What Limits]

These handles are not wire-locked in place - you would probably never break the wire even in a hurry !

They have a tell-tale wire normally made of copper or suchlike which has a very low breaking strain. Its just to show if the handle has been operated and put back into place without being reset.

[212man]

It struck the aircraft, causing the a/c to crash into the harbour with fatalities

No - incorrect. It was a straight CFIT at night in marginal VMC (single pilot.) Aircraft hit a ridge line and was destroyed - no harbours involved!

http://www.cad.gov.hk/reports/Accident_Report_1-2006_of_B-HRX.pdf

The BGS (German border Guard) aircraft lost both cabin doors during an air test. It resulted in a temporary Vne restriction of 140 kts.

[sardog]

hello all,
yes the front left door did part company with a 135 a couple of weeks ago. apparently un-needed equipment was loaded into the front left footwell and prior to take-off the pilot noticed the jettison handle was out of position and the wire broken. he reset the handle and checked the door for security, altho admits to not checking the locating pins. the door detached inflight.
HTH
sardog

[nodrama]

Thank you for the correction 212man, bad memory and you are certainly in a position to know the facts.

Coco, looks like your questions were answered above.

[Coconutty]

.... prior to take-off the pilot noticed the jettison handle was out of position and the wire broken. he reset the handle and checked the door for security, altho admits to not checking the locating pins. the door detached inflight.

So if that is correct then the pilot did not know how the door jettison mechanism worked, and reset the jettison handle thinking all would be well :eek:

This seems to be a classic "CRM" chain -
Lack of training or knowledge in respect of the pilot - the aircraft should not have taken off in this condition - it was an accident waiting to happen. :=

A departing door could easily have resulted in catastrophic damage to the aircraft in flight, and this time it seems there was a lucky escape. :ooh:

I hope this thread will alert any other 135 drivers / passengers / crew / observers etc. to the potential for such an accident, pending any further circulation or advice from Operators, Maintenance Organisations, CAA etc. :D

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d129/coconut11/Coconutty.jpg

[RVDT]

And the 109 E is not much different. Thats what the little tool inside the baggage door is for. Insert in the top of the hinge boss to check that the pins are engaged.