Huey down in Arizona

[SASless]

Bell UH-1V crashed in Arizona killing the two persons who were aboard.

One eye witness stated the aircraft disintegrated in the air slinging parts as it pitched over vertically and dived into the ground.

Looking at the first video....I see no signs of rotor blades at the crash site and the tail boom is separated from the cabin section which was destroyed in the post crash fire.


Helicopter crashes near Mayer; no survivors | azfamily.com Phoenix (http://www.azfamily.com/news/Helicopter-crashes-near-Mayer-no-survivors-224720842.html)

Tail number is thought to be....but not for certain.....is N22490.


FD: No survivors after helicopter crashes near Mayer, AZ (http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_northern_az/other/fd-no-survivors-after-helicopter-crashes-near-mayer-az)

[bladegrip]

SAS,

That tail number checks. It's registered to an individual in Cave Creek, AZ. Between this one and the B model logging accident, it's been a bad week for the venerable Huey...

RIP..

[SASless]

Though probably not related in any way.....two of them coming apart in the air is troubling. I am not a believer in coincidence.....although these two might just be that.

[bladegrip]

I doubt they're related, as well. As you opined earlier, loggers beat the crap out of those machines. If this was a catastrophic failure, it was most likely due to maintenance, or lack of maintenance....

[bladegrip]

I doubt they're related, as well. As you opined earlier, loggers beat the crap out of those machines. If this was a catastrophic failure, it was most likely due to maintenance, or lack of maintenance....

[Ascend Charlie]

The symptoms of this crash sound a bit like this:

An Oz B model fell out of the sky in 1981 when the tail rotor pitch control cables came off the wheel and wrapped around the drive shaft (the cables are in the same tunnel as the drive shaft - on D and subsequent models, the cables run in the main tail boom).

The tail rotor was pulled to a ridiculous pitch angle, causing a massive flap - one blade hit the metal loop to tie down the tail rotor on the tail fin and the end broke off. The huge imbalance tore the tail rotor gearbox out of the fin, the loss of anti-torque caused a big yaw, the loss of 90 lbs 30 feet back caused a big nose down pitch, and the rotor head bumped the mast twice.

The rotor head separated from the mast, one blade swung down and sliced through the copilot cabin (and the copilot), took off the drop tanks on the left side, removed the tail boom, and the scattered assortment of bits fell from 1500' to land upside down in a swamp, 3 killed.

The air force was very wary of the B after that, and they were very soon retired to live in museums or on sticks outside the bases.

[Arnie Madsen]

Names released , man (owner) and woman (passenger) ... privately owned , X-military
Scottsdale woman, Cave Creek man killed in helicopter crash - CBS 5 - KPHO (http://www.kpho.com/story/23493730/ycso-2-may-have-died-in-az-helicopter-crash)

[SASless]

Reportedly the cause was a manufacturing defect in the Main Rotor Mast which resulted in the separation of the rotor system from the aircraft.

[sandiego89]

NTSB initial report here:

WPR13FA417 (http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20130921X71327&key=1)

Yes, main rotor separation in flight. With what appears to be debris field indicating the blades doing some cabin damage on their way off.

Other forums hint the operator had been scrounging for main rotor parts in recent weeks. :uhoh:

[Rotorgoat8]

Second hand information from one of instructors that worked with him: He was asked to NOT fly without a qualified instructor at his current proficiency level. He may have been performing a pitch up/push-over maneuver and hauled back on the cyclic as it nosed over with no collective resulting in mast bump and M-R separation. It also had a bad 1 to 1 approaching 80Kt that needed to be addressed. Maybe dollars in the bank acct exceeded hours in the logbook.

[SASless]

Why do you think he may have been doing a maneuver as you describe?

Was the Aircraft Mod'ed with the Bump Pads?

[Rotorgoat8]

Like I said- it was info from one of his instructors(former Army Viet-Nam Vet & current DPE-Heli) -perhaps speculation on his part. I'm not familiar with this particular aircraft and any mods that may have been done.

[SASless]

So I will have to assume your earlier post was pure conjecture based upon gratuitous comments made by someone who had no actual knowledge of the events that happened immediately prior to the Crash.

[Rotorgoat8]

Read the post! First sentence is from the instructor. Second sentence is from the instructor. Third sentence says "may" and was no doubt conjecture on the part of the instructor. The 1 to 1 is from the instructor who flew the aircraft. The bank acct comment was mine-- as I've seen too many of these!


Just trying to add some light to the accident. If you take exception to it that's your issue.