Nice-Monaco shuttle down. Five killed

[Farrell]

Hi Folks

Am not a Rotorhead, am from the Wannabe Section, but thought you might want to read this....

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/040608/5/3ude4.html

Terrible news

Wayne

[Jed A1]

In English:

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=525471&section=news

[Spunk]

Looks like this has been the second fatal accident in France within a week. On Saturday June 5th, 2004 a german registered MD 600 crashed killing all 3 on board.:(

[md 600 driver]

spunk do you have any links to the 600 accident stev

[Flying Lawyer]

MONACO : Five people died when a helicopter crashed in the sea on the French Riviera as it was flying between Nice and the chic principality of Monaco, authorities said.

All aboard the aircraft died in the accident, whose cause was being investigated.

The identities of the pilot and the four passengers were not immediately given.

By late Tuesday, only the body of one of the passengers, a woman, had been recovered by French coastguard vessels deployed to the zone, some two kilometres (one mile) off the Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat peninsula situated a short distance from Monaco.

The bodies of the other four, all men, were reported missing, believed dead.

The helicopter, a single-engine Ecureuil AS-350, was chartered by a Monaco-based company, HeliAir, to shuttle passengers between Nice airport and the principality. Its wreckage was lying 300 metres underwater, a depth inaccessible to coastguard divers.

[Spunk]

MD 600 driver,

there was an article in an austrian newspaper but I can't find it on the net.
All I was able to find is that it is a german registered MD 600 (c/n RN 054, call sign D-HJER) which was privately owned by a german business man. It crashed in a place called Mazamet (@ 60 km E of Toulouse, France) killing all 3 on board.
According to an eye witness it "fell apart in the air" (probably the tail fell off...)
I'll keep on searching and let you know once the BFU (german equivalent to the NTSB in the US) releases any details.

Frank

[Heliport]

PA News
Two Britons were among five people killed when a helicopter crashed off the French Riviera, it was confirmed today.
The couple – a man and a woman – were on board the Heliair Monaco helicopter which went down in the sea a mile off the coast of Saint Jean Cap Ferrat in southern France yesterday.

All four passengers and the pilot died in the accident which happened just after midday as the helicopter flew from Nice airport to Monaco.

A spokesman for the Monaco Principality said the cause of the accident remained unknown as weather conditions were good.
He said Monaco heliport control was alerted by Nice airport after it lost contact with the single rotor Ecureuil helicopter.

A maritime police spokesman confirmed two of the passengers were a man and a woman from Britain and that the woman’s body had been recovered.
He said the other four – a French pilot, the British man and two other foreigners – were still missing. It is believed the other passengers on board were from Indonesia and Germany.

A British Embassy spokesman in Paris said the body of one woman had been recovered so far from the helicopter.
He said: “One female body has been recovered and I presume that they will be able to make a positive identification from that, but the process continues today.
The helicopter is in 300 metres of water – it is not an easy task.”

[ppheli]

MD600 Driver
I found this link on the MD600 accident on another discussion site, but it is already a dead link :sad:
http://www.sud.france3.fr/semiStatic/387-NIL-NIL-325955.html

I then found another report in French, which I put through the mangle (www.FreeTranslation.com) which produced this version, rather garbled, but notably the "rear part of the device" was 100m away from the fuselage.

A private helicopter crushed itself Friday afternoon between Castrate and Mazamet (Tarn), provoking the death of the three taking care of the device, one has learn with the firemen of the Tarn. L' device fell towards 15h45 in a field on the commune of Noailhac, in edge of a regional road, one has specified same source.Les helps rediscovered the rear party of the device to about one hundred meters. The vehicle could have fallen following the loss of the rear rotor, but the causes of the accident again were not known in fine afternoon, according to the prefecture of the Tarn. La turn check of Castrate mazamet did not dispose any flight plan indicating the identity and the destination of l' device. according to the first elements of the french police force investigation, the device, a small helicopter. The three persons that were located on board again definitely were not identified, pointed out someone Friday evening to the floor of Castres.Le floor of Castrate had to organize a press conference Saturday morning.

Finally, this particular MD600 had been in France for a few weeks, having visited the big helicopter event at Dax on 16th May - see photos of it there at http://heliweb.net.free.fr/SV_MD600.htm

[Heliport]

Gloucestershire Online report COUPLE KILLED IN HELICOPTER CRASH

A County couple died when a helicopter they were travelling in plunged into the sea off southern France.

Gerald Finch, 67, and Angela Smith, 63, from Chipping Campden, were travelling to Mr Finch's retirement party in Monaco when mechanical failure forced the aircraft to ditch. The pair were among five to die in the crash around midday yesterday.

They had been travelling from Nice to the party for Mr Finch, a retired printing and packaging expert.

His brother John, 68, of East Anglia, today described the family's shock at their loss.

He said: "We are all in a bit of a mess right now. It hasn't quite hit us yet what has happened."

The helicopter crashed into the sea one mile south of the exclusive resort of Saint-Jean-Cap- Ferrat two minutes into the six-minute, 11-mile flight.

As far as I know, the name of the pilot has not yet been released.

[VeeAny]

A sad loss of more lives, I've been a passenger of their's in the past.

Condolences to all involved.

V.

[lordproteron]

Has any one got more news on this.

[Spunk]

Has been covered before...

Here is the link

Monaco (http://www.pprune.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=133392)

[lordproteron]

Appreciate that but has anything new come out?
What is the official line?
Is the company still in operation?