AS355 down near Bruges, Belgium

[OlliBlue]

EMS AS355 OO-HSB made an emergency landing near Bruges, Belgium couple of hours ago.
Pilot and pax walked away unharmed, a/c completely destroyed. First reports say the pilot reported loss of fuel.

HLN België - MUG-helikopter crasht bij noodlanding in Nieuwmunster (502484) (http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/957/Belgie/article/detail/502484/2008/11/23/MUG-helikopter-neergestort-in-Nieuwmunster.dhtml)

[206Fan]

Thank god they walked away unharmed!:)

Photos: Aerospatiale AS-355F1 Ecureuil 2 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Instituut-voor-Medische/Aerospatiale-AS-355F1-Ecureuil/1115542/L/)

[birrddog]

Het toestel zou brandstof of olie verloren hebben, waarop de piloot overging tot een noodlanding in een weide. De heli werd veilig aan de grond gezet, maar ging toen aan het slippen op het besneeuwde grasveld en belandde in een sloot. Het toestel werd daarbij zwaar beschadigd, mogelijk onherstelbaar.The equipment ran out of fuel or oil, when the pilot proceeded to an emergency landing in a meadow. The Helicopter landed safely on the ground, but then began to slip on the snow covered grass and ended in a ditch. The equipment was thereby heavily damaged, possibly unrepairable.

Disclaimer: Been a long time since I last spoke Dutch/Flemmish so I'm very rusty.

[Deeko01]

Glad all are ok, used to work and fly on this aircraft when it was G-PLAX for PDG, ex Dollar/Black-Isle Helis aircraft.

[Revolutionary]

Birrddog your translation is spot on. Nice job!

[capt tosspot]

I'll let Ross up at PDG know - thanks

[OlliBlue]

Video of the a/c :

Video Mug helicopter stort neer Nieuwmunster (Brugge).-( Superfun ) (http://www.superkrediet.be/blog/2008/11/23/video-mug-helicopter-stort-neer-nieuwmunster-brugge/)

[OlliBlue]

Heli Service Belgium , owner of the aircraft , also lost the replacement OO-HSH (c/n 5157 ) after a collision with a b206 in Antwerp two years ago.

After years of struggling to find funds to keep the EMS helicopter operating from Bruges and no replacement a/c available, this must be a big blow for the people behind the operation, IMDH-CUMA .

There's a website dedicated to the EMS operations in Bruges :
MUG-Helikopter West-Vlaanderen (non-official website) (http://www.mug-heli.be/)

[Capt.Gonzo]

Any landing you walk away from is a good landing :p :ok:

[tophelios]

great thing that everybody walked out the chopper...
I know one of the pilots working there, is it possible for someone around there to PM me the name of the involved pilot ???
Tq

[rotorspeed]

Of course the most important thing is that no-one was hurt. But make no mistake what is also very important is that it looks like €500k of helicopter has been needlessly trashed, if the vague reports are right. Running out of fuel or oil on a twin and damaging the acft is surely almost certainly pretty major pilot error. And one that will damage an already fragile industry whether by affecting insurance rates and/or the operator's viability.

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

Hi Rotorspeed

It states in the press report that "the machine lost fuel or oil"

It does not state who said that or where the press got that information, which I find a bit strange, so it could be complete bulls***.

[rotorspeed]

Agree TTTE, which is why I did say info was a bit vague!

Acft and crew were clearly intact afterwards and no-one's come on to say any other reason for the emergency landing, so I suspect there may be some truth in it.

Now if was T/R, starflex or double engine failure for example I'll take it back!

[gov1]

There is a direct link between the AZ Brugge HEMS helicopter crashlanding and the presence of residual snow and (or) ice particles.

Helicopter was standing outside for some time during snowshower.
Blades and fuselage were covered with snow.
A medical mission was initiated in good weather conditions just after the passage of the snow shower.
Just before takeoff "apparently " ( = not confirmed ) only windscreen snow was removed.
Very soon ( 2 minutes ) after takeoff " low NR" activated the Horn (steady low pitch noise ).
Unable to keep level flight , helicopter descended and sliding landing was made in the field.
Unstable underground caused tumbling over of heli in final stage.

Residual ice particles on blades" and-or " residual snowlayers shifting on the topfuselage covering partly the engine intake metal nets could have been the cause of reduction in rotor lift performance "and-or" reduction of engine performance.

First lesson learned:
do no take off before following items to be thoroughly checked:
*all snow removed from blades and absolute absence of residual ice particles.
*all snow threatening the engine intakes should be removed ; snowlayershifting on fuselage is real and ingestion of ice particles during departure can cause engine suffocation or damage.
*do not hope or be convinced that rotor engagement and forward speed will get rid of all that white stuff..

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

Hi Gov1

Can we ask where you got this info?

TTTE.