John - Interesting stuff! Meanwhile ..
Presumably PLM's first 206, G-BAYA. Being a Bell model she was imported by CSE in '73 and sold to Provincial Helicopter Charter (who became Metropolitan Helicopter Hire) almost immediately. Then on to Goldington Investments and eventually PLM in February 1976.
Less than a year later on 11th January 1977 BAYA came to her demise during a filming sortie at Loch Avon in Invernessshire.
An excerpt from the
accident report reads:
The helicopter was on a daytime photographic flight in visual meteorological conditions (VMC) over the frozen surface of Loch Avon carrying a pilot and cameraman. It was in a slow acceleration at about 25 feet above the loch surface and at about 40 knots indicated airspeed (IAS) when suddenly a high rate of right yaw developed. After rotating through one and a half turns the helicopter crashed on to the loch. Both occupants survived and were rescued at 01:15 hrs on 12th January by a Royal Air Force (RAF) helicopter after and air and ground search.
The report concludes that although the main rotor had severed the helicopter’s tail rotor drive shaft at some time in the accident sequence it could not be shown that this was the cause of the loss of yaw control. The cause of the accident could not be determined.
More PLM nostalgia on pages 39 & 46 as well as page
7 of the Alan Mann thread.