Here is a copy of the witness statement from the helicopter in the river--previous page. I have sanitized it for the sake of the pilot. VERY interesting reading. It is written by the USFS inspector giving the ride.
On 6/28/2013, approximately between 1230 hrs to 1300, I witnessed "Brand X" Aviation Company’s Bell 206L3, N****, crash in the Clark Fork River approx. 3.5 to 4 nm South West of the Missoula Airport (KMSO). The weather at the time was VFR, calm wind, and approximately 30*C. Below is my statement of the events with this incident.
I was conducting a flight evaluation for the Pilot, for this coming fire season. We took off approx. 1200 hrs from the Minuteman FBO ramp of the KMSO airport. We flew to the mountains SW of the airport (approx. 4 to 5 nm) to conduct mountain-flying technics and confined area operations. After completing those tasks we were going to conduct water dropping operations, for the evaluation, with a water bucket and a 150’ synthetic long line. As briefed before the flight started from KMSO, I asked Mr. Pilot to land on a large sand/gravel bar on the north shore of the river, due to aircraft performance planning, and I would observe his longline/bucket work from the ground. The landing was normal and uneventful. Mr. Pilot then exited the aircraft to prep it for bucket operations while I stayed inside the aircraft and guarded the controls. After Mr. Pilot set up the long line and bucket, we then ops checked the bucket for proper operation and then we checked the aircraft’s cargo hook twice, everything was working correctly. Mr. Pilot then re-entered the aircraft, took over the controls and I climbed out to stand on the sand/gravel bar, to be able to observe his bucket work. Before I exited the aircraft, Mr. Pilot and I re-briefed what maneuvers and procedures I needed him to perform for the bucket part of the evaluation.
The first water dip and water drop was uneventful, other than coming in a little steep and putting the control head in the water. The second water dip Mr. Pilot seemed to be coming into the dip vertically from a higher height than I would have come in, (if I had been flying), and the aircraft seemed to be settling with power for a brief moment as the bucket and control head entered the water, then Mr. Pilot recovered, and did another successful water drop. The third water dip approach, again seemed to be initiated from a higher than normal altitude to the water, and his water drop was again satisfactory. It seemed to me that he was trying to fly a little too fast thru the water bucket part of the evaluation, all water bucket maneuvers seemed to be rushed. Mr. Pilot went back for his fourth water dip, this time he initiate this approach to the water from higher altitude than the other 3 previous dip approaches. I would estimate he initiated this approach from approximately 250 ft AGL (bucket height). As he was coming down vertically, I noticed that the aircraft started to settle with power at a fairly quick rate and I knew he was in trouble. The bucket, control head, and line started entering the water rapidly, and then Mr. Pilot dropped the nose of the aircraft and tried to get out of the settling by flying forward (upstream), the bucket filled with water and became a big anchor and pivot point resulting in the aircraft to start to dynamically roll over longitudinally forward. The aircraft’s nose was in a downward angle toward the water. Then it appeared that Mr. Pilot pulled in a lot of power to try to stop his descent. At this point I could hear what sounded like the rotor RPM slow down and the engine spooling up then compressor stalling (making loud banging noises) and the aircraft spun one and a half times to the right (LTE), ending up facing down river. At about the same time as the aircraft spin occurred, it sounded like Mr. Pilot closed the throttle of the aircraft or the engine spooled down and the aircraft descended vertically into the river rapidly from about 15 to 20 feet above the water level, on the south side of the river. After that the main rotor came down and struck the tail boom just in front of the tail rotor. I ran down the north shore of the river (a lot easier written than done) until I was abeam the aircraft and Mr. Pilot. I could not reach the aircraft because it was on the other side of the river from me (100 yards) and the water was running too fast and was too deep for me to cross. I could see Mr. Pilot sitting in the aircraft and moving around. I yelled over to him to see if he was ok and he replied back that he was ok. Then he started to make cell phone calls while sitting in the aircraft, to people who needed to know of the incident. I noticed that the bucket seemed to be still attached to the aircraft, because I could see it downstream 150 ft of the aircraft, immerged in the river.
The pilot experienced three different emergencies thru this incident. He went from settling with power to dynamic rollover then to LTE, after that, is when gravity took over. The pilot was ok, but ended up with two cracked vertebrates. I asked the pilot later that day after the incident, why he didn’t punch off the bucket, he said he tried but realized he was pushing the wrong button. End of Statement.
Helicopter Inspector Pilot
US Forest Service, Region 1