Mid Air over Hertfordshire

[airmail]

From BBC News Website:

Two people have been killed in a mid-air collision between a helicopter and a light aircraft above fields in Hertfordshire.
A Hertfordshire Police spokesman said the accident took place above Welham Green just before 1300 BST on Tuesday.

Both crash landed in separate fields in the Dixons Hill Road area near Hatfield.

Two other people were treated for minor injuries. Police are asking people to avoid the area.


Police have cordoned-off the area around Dixons Hill Road, Swanlands Road and Station Road and people are being asked to avoid the area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/3870629.stm

RIP

[Flying Lawyer]

I've been told by someone who was flying in the area this afternoon that the helicopter was an R22 and it's on the ground on its skids with (from a distance) no visible damage.
There's an exclusion zone around both sites.

[Staticdroop]

Just heard about the incident through company Ops, my condolences to the families of those involved.
Cann't personally see how an R 22 could hit anything midair and not disintegrate.

[Ed Thrust IV]

Helicopter crew OK, Microlight crew not so lucky.

[pilotwolf]

Also under discusion here...

Private Flying (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=136589)

:(

PW

[headsethair]

I was covering this for news today. There was a TRA established for 2nm radius and up to 2500 ft - so we couldn't get over the site. The R22 seems in perfect condition sitting in a field - blades straight.

The microlight wreckage is in some woods.

Whilst filming on the edge of the TRA at 1500, a red microlight came beneath us and entered the TRA.......we have it on tape.

There is a microlight strip a few miles from the incident - and this all happened just west of BPK.

Venturi effect.

[Barshifter]

The Microlight apears to have set off from Plaistows Farm Airstrip.Looks like R22 was lucky to escape with the Cockpit glass smashed.


Barshifter

[rotorcraig]

BBC News now carrying a photo of the R22 on the ground on its skids:


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40354000/jpg/_40354395_helicoptercrash203.jpg

Two people on board the helicopter, which was on a training flight, suffered serious injuries.
RC

[RichiePAO]

I personally know both the deceased, although I will spare their names as they are not in the public domain as of yet.
My deepest condolences for their respective families.

[widgeon]

September 29th 1992 - on Tuesday at 12:19 p.m., four persons were killed as two sightseeing helicopters collided in mid-air.

The collision took place in Canadian air space approximately 100 meters (330 feet) west of the Horseshoe falls in front of the Minolta Tower and Incline Railway. The weather was crisp and clear. Wind wasn't a factor

link to full story http://www.iaw.com/~falls/accident.html

and here http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=NYC92WA186A&rpt=p


reminds me of this incident .

[Barshifter]

nervy


Well theres always some who choose to conduct the accident investigation from the comfort of their armchair.Pointing the finger at the microlight may or may not be jumping the gun.Lets wait till the "qualified" chaps have done their job eh.

Two soles lost their lives remember.



Barshifter

[Heliport]

from BBC NEWS: Police officers dead in air crash

Two men who died when their microlight aircraft was in a mid-air crash with a helicopter on Tuesday were off-duty Hertfordshire police officers.
One of the two, who were in their 40s but have not been named, was a trained microlight pilot.

The helicopter pilot has a fractured leg and his passenger minor injuries, following an emergency landing.

A Hertfordshire Police spokeswoman said on Wednesday: "I can now confirm that the two people who died in the incident were in the microlight.

"They were two men aged in their 40s and I can also confirm that they were two serving police officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary who were off duty at the time.


Villager Dennis Shorter, who lives 300 yards from the crash site, said: "A microlight came straight over the house, not at the normal height I'd expect to see one. It wasn't that high.
I didn't see the helicopter until I heard the bang. I looked up immediately and there was this microlight twisting about 10 or 12ft below the helicopter and it came down like a dead bird that had just been shot."

Senior local air accident inspector Brian Curtis said microlights had an impeccable safety record and he had no knowledge of a similar tragedy.

The helicopter was operated by Cabair, a company offering training and charter flights, which is based at Elstree Aerodrome, Herts.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Don't bunch microlights and autogyros, very different beasts with significantly different accident records.

Aircrew fatal accident rates in the UK (1990-1999, from CAP701) are:-

Commercial transport light aeroplanes- 1 per 400,000 flights.
Other light aeroplanes - 1 per 71,500 hrs

Public transport helicopters - 1 fatal accident per million flights.
Other helicopter flights - 1 fatal per 53,000 hrs

Microlights - 1 fatal per 50,000 hrs
Gyroplanes - 1 fatal per 8,000 hrs



My own sympathies to those who survived in the helicopter, and the friends and relatives of those who didn't survive in the microlight.

It's a difficult, high workload, crowded bit of airspace - I don't recall ever flying in that immediate vicinity without some need to take avoiding action. But, that makes the accident no less tragic, nor the lessons that we'll be asked to learn from it any less important.

G

[WhirlyGirl Sarah]

New link from BBC site.

Fatal Air Crash Officers Praised (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/3872573.stm)


Deepest condolences to the families. RIP.

WGS

[Hilico]

AAIB report just out.

Click here. (http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/sites/aaib/publications/bulletins/april_2005/robinson_r22_beta__g_lids_and_hybred_44xlr__g_mtjp.cfm)

[Crosswind Limits]

I knew Andy Morton and his family when I was staying in Cranfield doing my CPL/Multi/IR in 2002. I stayed with them for almost 4 months and used their home as my base during the week. It is only today that I discovered Andy was one of the police officers killed in this tragic accident. He was a decent bloke. Rest in peace my friend!