ZK-IPY is the registration of the mishap R44 with Dash-7 blades, owned and operated by
"Over the Top Ltd", which crashed on 19 February 2015, killing both pax on board. Potentially related Robinson Dash-7 blades problems are extensively discussed in this thread.
Is there any update on the related accident investigation? The
CAA of New Zealand website doesn't seem to have the accident report yet.
However, ZK-IPY apparently is no stranger to blade damage. A quick Google search reveals the following:
- Raven II, serial # 10555, built in 2004. ZK-IPY was taken off the New Zealand register in or around April 2015, after the recent accident.
- A set of new, "lastest" MR blades, plus new TR blades, were fitting at 1,020 airframe HRS in or before March 2012.
- This is reported in a
sales advertisement from March 2012, when Over The Top Ltd, seemingly without success, tried to sell off this aircraft.
- On 11 January 2013 the same chopper then had an
accident when "a wind gust caused the main rotor to strike the tail boom during start-up, damaging the rotor blades as well as the tail boom".
I do not know whether those blades damaged in 2013 were repaired or replaced. Or whether the damaged blades, alternatively the replacement blades, were already Dash-7 blades. Possibly the Dash-7 blades were fitted to ZK-IPY only at a later stage. As far as I know, the Dash-7 blades only came out in 2013, but I am not sure.