AS-350 crash in B.C.

[rotornut]

Helicopter crash kills 3 near Terrace, B.C. - British Columbia - CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/06/01/bc-helicopter-crash-terrace.html)

All three people aboard a helicopter that went down west of Terrace, B.C., died in the crash, according to the company that owns the aircraft.

Peter Schweiler, a spokesman for Bailey Helicopters of Fort St. John, B.C., said all three men aboard the helicopter on a training flight were killed.

The Joint Rescue and Co-ordination Centre in Victoria said it received an automated crash beacon from the helicopter just after 9 a.m. PT.

Search and rescue officials dispatched a Buffalo aircraft and a Cormorant helicopter from 442 Squadron in Comox, along with a local ground crew, to the scene.

The aircraft were able to survey the wreckage but ground crews have not been able to access the crash site due to bad weather conditions and the threat of avalanche.

The helicopter's beacon, which is designed to go off automatically during a crash, reported the site was 14 kilometres west of Terrace on a ridge on the back side of Sleeping Beauty Mountain.

The ASTAR helicopter is a single-engine, five-person aircraft manufactured by Aerospatiale. It is known as an AS350 in Europe.

Bailey Helicopters recently opened a base in Terrace, according to local operators.

[fijdor]

All were Pilots.

Condolences.

JD

[MattGray]

One has now been publicly identified here (http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120602/bc_terrace_helicopter_crash_120602/20120602?hub=BritishColumbiaHome).

R.I.P.

[Fun Police]

"all were pilots"

not so.

one victim was an engineer who until recently worked for my employer. this is very sad. thoughts to families of those involved.
fp

[Savoia]

Low visibility plus a lack of instruments and instrument training are blamed for causing a helicopter to spiral into the ground near Terrace, B.C., killing all three people aboard.

The six-seat helicopter was owned by Fort St. John-based Bailey Helicopters Ltd., and the crash killed the company's assistant chief pilot, Terrace resident Peter Bryant, and colleagues Blake Erickson of Sicamous and Arnaud Jolibois of Banff, Alta.

The Transportation Safety Board report says Bryant was due for leave and was showing his relief pilot the Terrace-area terrain, while the company's maintenance engineer joined them on the June 1, 2012 flight to help the pair practice hover exit training.

Neither pilot had instrument training and when the helicopter encountered overcast conditions above snow-covered terrain, the report says the pilots became disoriented and lost their reference to the ground.

Data from various GPS units aboard the single-engine Eurocopter show it began an increasingly fast and tight downward spiral, slamming into the hillside barely 30 seconds later.

The TSB says Bailey Helicopters has made several changes following the tragedy, including purchasing a flight simulator to train its pilots what to do if they suddenly lose ground reference and cancelling Transport Canada-issued permission for low-visibility operations.

Low visibility and lack of instruments led to deadly B.C. helicopter crash | CTV British Columbia News (http://bc.ctvnews.ca/low-visibility-and-lack-of-instruments-led-to-deadly-b-c-helicopter-crash-1.1574276)